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Watei -Supply and Lrigalkm Paper No. 155 



0, Underground 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

CHAR ES D. WALCOTT, Director 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN 

WELLS. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 

TO LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK 



BY 



_A. C. YEATCH 




WASHINGTON' 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1906 




Glass \Z — 



Book. 






Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/fluctuationsofwaOOveat 



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Water-Supply and Irrigation Paper No. 155 



Series 0, Underground Waters, 52 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOE 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

CHARLES 1>. VVALCOTT, Dieectok 



76 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN 

WELLS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 

TO LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK 



J±. C. YEATCH 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1 9 6 



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AUG 30 i9U6 
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CONTENTS 



Page. 

Introduction and summary 7 

Part I. Long Island observations 9 

Introductory outline of hydrologic conditions 9 

( )| nervations of the United States Geological Survey 10 

Observations with direct-reading gages 10 

At Huntington, N. Y 10 

At Oyster Bay, N. Y 13 

Observations with self-recording gages 17 

Instruments used 17 

At Queens County Water Company pumping station near Hew- 
lett, N. Y 18 

At Long Beach, N. Y 19 

Near Millburn, N. Y 22 

At Lynbrook, N. Y 23 

At Douglaston, N. Y 25 

Observations of the New York City commission on additional water supply . 27 

Part II. General discussion of the fluctuations of water in wells 28 

Classification of causes '. 28 

Fluctuations produced by natural causes 29 

Rainfall and evaporation '. -.' . M 29 

Regular annual fluctuations 29 

General character and cause 29 

Effect of depth of soil above the zone of complete saturation 

on time of occurrence of yearly maximum and minimum. . 34 

Irregular secular fluctuations 37 

Amount of annual and secular fluctuation 38 

Fluctuations due to single -showers 42 

By transmitted pressure without any increase in the ground 

water 42 

By the actual addition of water to the ground water through 

percolation 44 

Percentage of rainfall contributed to the ground water 44 

Methods of estimation 44 

By lysimeters 44 

By stream discharge 49 

By changes in level of ground-water table 50 

References relating to well fluctuations due to rainfall 51 

Fluctuations due to barometric changes 52 

Character and cause 52 

References relating to well fluctuations due to barometric changes. 53 

Fluctuations due to temperature changes 54 

Observations at Madison, Wis.; fluctuations varying directly with 

the temperature 54 

3 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Part II. General discussion of the fluctuations of water in wells — Cont'd. 
Fluctuations produced by natural causes — Continued. 

Fluctuations due to temperature changes— Continued. 

Observations at Lynbrook, N. Y. ; fluctuations inversely related to 

the temperature 57 

Observations at Sherlock, Kans 59 

Diurnal fluctuations of Cache la Poudre River, Colorado 59 

References relating to fluctuations produced by temperature 

changes .- 59 

Fluctuations produced by rivers 59 

By change in rate of ground-water discharge 60 

By irregular infiltration from rivers with normally impervious 

beds 61 

By plastic deformation 62 

References relating to fluctuations produced by rivers 62 

Fluctuations produced by changes in lake levels 63 

Fluctuations produced by changes in the ocean level — tidal wells 63 

By changes in rate of outflow of ground water 64 

By plastic deformation 65 

References relating to tidal fluctuations in wells 67 

Possibility of tides in the ground water produced by direct solar and 

lunar attraction 69 

Fluctuations due to geologic causes 69 

Fluctuations produced by human agencies 70 

Effect of settlement, deforestation, and cultivation 70 

Effect of irrigation 72 

Effect of dams 72 

Effect of underground water-supply developments 72 

Subsurface dams 72 

Infiltration galleries 72 

Pumping 73 

Artesian-well developments 74 

Effect of large cities on the ground-water level 74 

Loaded freight trains 75 

Fluctuations due to indeterminate causes 75 

Small fluctuations 75 

Fluctuations at Millburn, N. Y 76 

Fluctuations at Urisino Station, New South Wales 76 

Index 77 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 
Plate I. Sketch map of western Long Island, New York, showing localities 

discussed 9 

II. Map of a portion of southern Long Island, New York, showing loca- 
tion of Hewlett, Long Beach, Millburn, and Lynbrook wells 16 

III! Partial record of fluctuations of water level in a 181-foot well near 

Hewlett, N. Y 18 

i ' 

IV. Partial record of fluctuations in a 386-foot well at Long Beach, N. Y. 20 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 



Plate V. Partial record of fluctuations of water level in a 289-fool well near 

Millburn, N. Y 22 

VI. Partial record of fluctuations of water level in wells at Lyn brook, 

NY 24 

VII. Sketch map showing location and topographic surroundings of wells 

of tin- Citizens' Water Supply ( oinpany near Douglaston, N. Y ... 26 

VIII. Partial record of fluctuations of water level in wells near Douglaston, 

NY 28 

IX. Fluctuations of water level in wells near Wiener Neustadt, Austria. 32 
Fig. 1. Diagrammatic cross section of Long Island, showing principal topo- 
graphic ami geologic factors influencing the underground water con- 
ditions 9 

2. Sketch map showing location of well of Huntington Light and Power 

Company at Huntington Harbor, N. Y 11 

3. Detail of well and tide curves at Huntington Harbor, N. Y., show- 

ing lag between well and tide 12 

4. Sketch map showing location of wells observed at Oyster Bay, N. Y__ 13 

5. Sketch map showing topographic surroundings of wells shown in fig. 

4 and location of sections shown in figs. 6 and 7 14 

6. Section at Oyster Bay, N. Y., along line B-B, tig. 5, showing geologic 

relations of wells observed 14 

7. Section at Oyster Bay, N. Y., along line A-A, fig. 5, showing geologic 

relation of the artesian wells at Oyster Bay and on Center Island . . 15 

8. Well and tide curves at Oyster Bay, N. Y 17 

9. Yearly rainfall and water-level curves in shallow wells in middle 

Europe 29 

10. Yearly rainfall and water-level curves in shallow wells in the United 

States 30 

11. Mean annual ground-water curve at Bryn Mawr, Pa., and rainfall and 

temperature curves at Philadelphia, Pa 31 

12. Results of English percolation experiments 32 

13. Fluctuations of water level in wells on Long Island, N. Y., from obser- 

vations of New York City commission on additional w r ater supply. . 36 

14. Residual-mass curves of rainfall for Long Island, N. Y., Newark, N. J., 

and Philadelphia, Pa 37 

15. Annual and secular changes of the ground-water level and fluctuations 

due to single showers in a shallow w r ell at Millburn, N. Y 39 

16. Fluctuations of water level in a well at Madison, Wis., showing non- 

transmission of diurnal fluctuations produced by changes in capil- 
lary attraction 57 

17. Diagram showing production of fluctuations of ground-water level by 

temperature changes affecting rate of flow 58 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IX WELLS, 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LONG ISLAND. 
NEW YORK. 



By A. C. Veatch. 



INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 

In connection with the investigation of the geology of Long Island hy the United 
States Geological Survey in the summer of 1903, a few observations were made on 
the fluctuation of the water level in wells, both with direct-reading and self-recording 
gages. In the consideration of these data, as well as those collected at the same 
time by the New York City commission on additional water supply, it has seemed 
desirable to enter into a general discussion of the fluctuation of water in wells. 

Some of the results of this study may be briefly summarized as follows: 

1. The most important and characteristic of the natural ground-water fluctuations 
is the regular annual period. This is a relatively uniform curve, with a single maxi- 
mum and minimum, on which the fluctuations of shorter periods, as a rule, form 
but minor irregularities. This curve does not generally resemble the rainfall curve. 
Were the rainfall uniform throughout the year, the ground water would still show a 
regular yearly period and the maximum would occur early in the year in the North 
Temperate Zone. The effect of irregularities in the rainfall is to move the time of 
occurrence of this maximum either forward or back. 

2. The water from single showers is generally delivered gradually to the ground- 
water table, and even where noticeable fluctuations are produced, these do not com- 
monly make important irregularities in the regular annual ground-water curve. 

3. Single showers may, by transmitted pressure through the soil air, produce instan- 
taneous and noticeable rises in the water in wells and notably increase the stream 
discharge without contributing either to the ground water or directly to the surface 
flow. 

4. The amount contributed to the ground water can not be satisfactorily estimated 
by the rise and fall of the water in wells, because the same amount of rainfall under 
the same geologic and climatic conditions, in beds of the same porosity, will pro- 
duce fluctuations of very different values. Near the ground-water outlet the total 
yearly range may be but a few inches, while near the ground-water divide it may be 
50 or 100 feet. When an attempt is made to calculate the amount of water received 
from single rains, the results are not reliable, because in the cases which are usually 
taken, such as sharp, quick rises, it is impossible to tell how much of the rise is due 
to transmitted pressure and how much to direct infiltration. 

5. Because of the increase in stream flow due (1) to transmitted pressure from 
rains, (2) to changes in barometric pressure, and (3) to increase in area of ground- 
water discharge, with the elevation of the ground-water table, it is not possible to 

7 



8 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

correctly separate the quantity of water -in the stream discharge contributed by spring 
flow from that contributed by direct surface run-off. There are many reasons for 
believing that in humid regions "flood flows" contain large percentages of ground 
water. 

6. Tidal fluctuations in wells are very often produced by a plastic deformation due 
to the loading of the tides, and the occurrence of such fluctuations in wells does not 
in itself indicate a connection between the water-bearing strata and the sea. 

7. Temperature changes may produce marked fluctuations ( 1) by changes in capillary 
attraction — such fluctuations are perceptible only at the surface of the zone of com- 
plete saturation, are not transmitted to deeper levels, and vary directly with the 
temperature; (2) by changes in viscosity or rate of flow — fluctuations due to this 
cause vary inversely with the temperature, and show in deep wells by transmitted 
pressure. 



PART I. 



LONG ISLAND OBSERVATIONS. 



[NTRODUCTORY OUTIJNK OF THE IIYDROLOGIC CONDITIONS. 



The conditions <>n Long Islam 
of the fluctuations of water in w 
such that it may be affirmed that 
the underground water is derived 

wholly from the rain which falls 
on the surface of the island, and 
the problems involved are, there- 
fore, not unduly complicated, as 

they are in many regions, by the 
possibility of the influx of water 
from other areas. In addition 
to this comparatively complete 
ground-water isolation, the is- 
land is of such a size — 120 miles 
long and 20 miles wide — that 
ground-water phenomena can 
attain a relatively complete de- 
velopment, and the geologic 
structure of the water-bearing 
beds, while not complicated, is 
sufficiently varied to produce 
several differing conditions. 

Topographically the western 
part of Long Island — the portion 
involved directly in this paper — 
may be said to consist of a single 
range of rolling hills, usually 150 
to 250 feet high, though in one 
place attaining an elevation of 
over 400 feet. This hill range 
descends somewhat abruptly to 
the north shore, where it is cut 
by several reentrant bays occu- 
pying old valleys. On the south 
side is a very flat gravel plain, 
sloping gently to the ocean, along 
which a series of barrier beaches 
inclosing long marshes has been 
developed. To the east the hill 
range divides and produces two 
hilly peninsulas, each with a 
single ridge on the northern side. 

Geologically the island may be 
sand beds, containing irregular 



, New York, are particularly favorable for the study 
ells. The geologic and topographic conditions are 






-Sub O.ceanic springs 



-Cretaceous flowing weM 

North Shore flowing well 
dependent on local clay bed 
Springs 




Springs which supply Brooklyn 
Waterworks ponds 



regarded as a series of relatively porous gravel and 
and discontinuous clay masses, the whole limited 



10 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

below by the peneplained surface of a mass of highly disturbed ana metamorphosed 
Paleozoic and pre-Paleozoic rocks, which have little water value except as a more or 
less complete barrier to do wn ward percolation ( fig. 1 ) . While these unconsolidated beds 
represent, in the geologic time scale, several of the divisions of the Upper Cretaceous 
and as many as five Pleistocene or glacial stages, and as a whole are stratified deposits 
dipping at very low angles south and southeastward, they are, under the island, 
essentially continuous from a water standpoint, and the rain falling on the surface is 
relatively free to pass to any part of the mass. The Pleistocene beds which form the 
surface are, however, as a rule, coarse and more porous than the underlying Creta- 
ceous and tend to increase the absorbing power of the island. As a result, the per- 
centage of rainfall which passes into the streams without first going through the 
ground is extremely small. « This percolating water has entirely saturated the porous 
strata above the bed rock, except a limited portion at the surface, and has driven 
out the salt water which filled these beds when they were first deposited and which 
reoccupied them, at least in part, during the several submergences to which this 
region has been subjected. The surface of this zone of complete saturation, or the 
main ground- water table, is coincident with the sea level at the shores and becomes 
more and more elevated in passing inland, though the rate of increase of elevation is 
less than that of the surface, of which it is but a subdued reflection (fig. 1).& 

This slope of the ground-water table permits the development of artesian wells at 
many points on the coast, at elevations which are commonly less than 10 feet above 
high tide. The head is, in all cases, due to the greater height of the ground water 
in the adjacent hill mass. In order that such a differential head may be developed, it 
is merely necessary that the water-bearing bed in question be coarser than the over- 
lying beds. A clay or other impervious cover is not essential and, indeed, is often 
absent. 

OBSERVATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

Observations on the fluctuations of the water level in wells were made by the Geo- 
logical Survey near Huntington, Oyster Bay, Valley Stream, Millburn, Long Beach, 
and Douglaston, all villages on Long Island west of longitude 73° W., and between 
latitudes 40° 35' and 40° 55 / N. (PI. I. ) 

OBSERVATIONS WITH DIRECT-READING GAGES. 

OBSERVATIONS AT HUNTINGTON, N. Y. 

The Huntington observations, from which the other Survey observations developed, 
were undertaken to test the common report that the discharge of most of the artesian 
wells along the northern shore of Long Island fluctuated with the tide; in some cases 
the flow ranging from at low tide to over 100 gallons per minute at high tide. 
Nearly all of these wells were being pumped, or were utilized to run rams, but per- 
mission was obtained to gage a newly completed well belonging to the Huntington 
Light and Power Company, at Huntington Harbor, until it should be connected with 
the pumps — a period of three or four days. 

A direct-reading float gage of simple type was quickly constructed by Baker & Fox, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. This consisted of a 2-inch cylinder of brass carrying a £-inch alu- 
minum rod 6 feet long and graduated to hundredths of a foot, with the zero point just 

"Spear (Rept. New York City Commission on Additional Water Supply, 1904, p. 829) has estimated 
that 43 per cent of the total stream flow (or 14 per cent of the rainfall ) can be considered as flood flow 
or as not having passed through the ground. He bases this judgment on the relative heights of the 
stream and ground-water levels near the south shore, where, as explained on page 51, a correct judg- 
ment can not be formed. The average flood flow is believed to be much less than 5 per cent of the 
precipitation. 

b For details of the slope of the ground- water table see Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 44, 1906, 
Pis. XI, XII. 



OBSERVATIONS WITH DIREOT-RE ADING GAGES. 



11 



above the cylinder. For convenience in carrying, ;is well as to avoid the use <>f so 
long a mil except where absolutely necessary, the rod was divided into three parts 
and jointed. The cylinder was so constructed that it would just carry the total length 
of (i feet, and when used with only 2 or 4 feet of .rod, weights, balancing the effect of 
the part removed, were added to the bottom of the cylinder. 

Some trouble was experienced by the float tending to approach theside of the well 
and develop a thin capillary film between it and the pipe, which decreased the sen- 
sitiveness of the gage. It is suggested that when direct-reading floats are usee I in 
wells of small diameter they be kept, away from the walls of the well by means of 




Fig. 2.— Sketch map showing location of well of Huntington Light and Power Company at Hunt- 
ington Harbor, N. Y. 

slightly arched wires, as in the float devised by Professor King for the self-recording 
gages used in the Madison experiments and later on Long Island. 

The well of the Huntington Light and Power Company is situated on a dock at 
Huntington Harbor, near Halesite post-office (PI. I, fig. 2. ) The natural level of the 
surface at the point where the well is sunk is between high- and low-tide mark, but 
the ground has been built up by filling about 5 feet higher. The well is 75 feet deep 
and 4 inches in diameter, and the water rises in the pipe from 1 to 3 feet above the 
surface of the made ground. The well was piped above the limit of flow, so that all 
the fluctuations could be measured directly, rather than inferred from variations in 
the rate of discharge. 



12 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 



The geologic section reported by the driller, Mr. H. J. Dubois, is as follows: 

Section of well of Huntington Light and Power Company at Huntington Harbor, 

Halesite, N. Y. 

Feet. 

1. Filled ground 0- 6 

2. Swamp deposit 6-10 

3. Dark sand and gravel 10-70 

4. Blue clay 70-71 

5. Light-yellow gravel containing artesian fresh' water 71-75 

The artesian flow is due to the height of the ground water in the steep hill just 
east of the well, the head being transmitted through the coarse beds encountered in 
the bottom of the well. Water escapes in many springs along the beach, but the 
movement through the lower gravels is freer and a differential head is produced, 



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Fig. 3. — Details of well and tide curves at Huntington Harbor, N. Y., showing lag between well and 
tide. From observations with direct-reading floats by A. C. Veatch and Isaiah Bowman. 



which, when a free escape to the surface is afforded, as by a well tube, causes a flow- 
ing well. The blue-clay layer reported probably represents the feather-edge of a 
sheet which thickens under the harbor, but does not extend beyond it. This is 
inferred from the general geologic relations of the region. 

A board gage divided to tenths of a foot was placed on the north side of the plat- 
form pier at the point marked "Gage No. 1" in fig. 2. There was relatively still 
water at this point, and the oldest inhabitant stated positively, when the board was 
placed, at about 6 p. m. on May 8, that the foot of the gage would not be exposed at 
low water. Observations were at once begun on the well and tide gage, and contin- 
ued until 3 o'clock on the morning of May 9, when at low tide the bottom of the 
gage was exposed. The gage was then moved to point No. 2, south of the platform 
pier, and the observations continued from 7.38 a. m. May 9 to 7.30 p. m. May 10, 
and thus four high and three low waters were compared. 



OBSERVATIONS WITH DI RECT-TCEA HI N< ! (JACKS 



13 



( Iross on top of south 
ad l''>\\ er ( lompany. 



snd of doorsill, 
The elevation 



jeneral character as I hose plotted 



Tlic bench mark established was as foll< 
west side of building of Huntington Light and 
above the zero of gage No. 2 is 12.232 feet. 

The observations here gave curves of the same 
at Oyster Bay (fig. 8, p. 16). 

The two curves arc essentially parallel, ami while I lie semidiurnal range of the tide 

is about S feet, that of the well is abOUl 2 feet. The low water in the well is 3.5 feet, 

above the highest water in the hay. 

In fig. :; the high- ami low-tide readings for both the well and the tide have been 
plotted on a large scale, with the same time values, hut with different vertical values, 
in order to bring out the amount of time the fluctuations in the well lag behind those 
of the tide. These curves indicate that for the period of observation the low tide in 
the well has an average establishment, or lag behind the ocean waters, of two 
minutes and the high tide eight minutes. 

On May 11 Mr. Isaiah Bowman made observations with the direct-reading floats 
on a shallow 6-inch flowing well belonging to the Consolidated lee Company, at 
Huntington. It is located about a mile from the harbor, at an elevation of 40 feet. 
The observations were continued for six hours and no fluctuations of any character 
noted. 

OBSERVATIONS AT OYSTER BAY, N. Y. 

During the month following the observations at Huntington Harbor it was found 
that among the many flowing wells at Oyster Bay four could be observed for a lim- 
ited time. 



OYSTER BAY HARBOR. 




Fig. 4. — Sketch map showing location of wells observed at Oyster Bay, N. Y. 

These wells are all very near the shore; indeed, the Casino well, which is beneath 
the floor of a building extending over the water, is always covered at high tide (fig. 4). 
The others, the Burgess, Lee (or Hill), and Underhill w r ells (fig. 4), are at distances 
of from 50 to 500 feet from ordinary high-tide mark, though the ground at all is cov- 
ered when extraordinary wind-aided tides occur. The depths of these wells, as 
determined by soundings at the time of the observations, were: Casino, 93 feet; 
Underhill, 114 feet; Lee, 188 feet; Burgess, 155.5 feet. The Casino and Lee are 3-inch 
wells, and the Burgess and Underhill 2-inch wells. All these wells pass through a 
surface layer of sand and gravel, then a layer of blue clay 50 to 75 feet thick, and 
finally penetrate a rather coarse water-bearing sand. In some cases the upper sands 
and gravels will furnish flowing water, but all the wells observed obtain their supply 



14 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 



from below the blue-clay layer (fig. 6). This blue clay thins rapidly southward and 
entirely disappears half a mile south of the wells (fig. 7). It extends under Oyster 
Bay Harbor and is exposed in the clay pits on the south end of Center Island. <•* 



LONG ISLAND SOUND 

,Hoyt vvell 




Fig. 5.— Sketch map showing topographic surroundings of wells 
shown in fig. 4 and location of sections shown in figs. 6 and 7. 

All these wells were flowing, and in each case, before observations were commenced, 
lengths of pipe were added until the wells no longer flowed, even at high tide. Float 
gages similar to those used at Huntington Avere then inserted and the wells covered 




^nd amdgravel^. ... 
_r_ r gr^— Tc,<oS£ 



o Sea level 



ZOO'' 



y 2 i mile 

Fig. 6.— Section at Oyster Bay, N. Y., along line B-B, fig. 5, show- 
ing geologic relations of wells observed. 

with flat-topped caps, each containing a smooth beveled hole through which the 
gage rod extended. & 

a The folding of the beds here shown is due to ice shove. See Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 44, 
1906, pp. 39-43. 

6 The general conditions of observation are well shown in Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 44, 1906, 
PI. XIII, A. This view indicates, in a very graphic manner, the relation of the wells to the water of 
the bay and the considerable head developed by these fresh-water artesian wells on the seashore. 



OBSKRY ATIONS WITH DIRECT-READING OAOKS. 



15 



In order t<> obtain more refined results than were possible with the board gage at 
Huntington, a 3-inch pipe, perforated at a point several feel above the bottom, was 
driven in the harbor at the end of a row of piles and at a distance of about 200 feet 







from the shore (tig. 4). This still box or tide well was fitted with a direct-reading 
float gage like those used in the artesian wells. This arrangement is not to be rec- 
ommended during stormy weather, but fortunately during the whole time of obser- 
vation at this place no trouble was experienced from that cause. 



16 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 



Observations wei'e commenced on the Casmo, Underbill, and Burgess wells on tbe 
evening of May 30, by a party in charge of Mr. Isaiah Bowman, and continued, with 
interruptions on the nights of May 30 and 31 and June 1, to 10 p. m. on June 4. 

On June 10 and 11 observations were made on the Lee (or Hill) well, covering two 
high arid two low tides, and for the purpose of comparison the Casino and tide wells 
were also observed. Observations were generally made every minute for thirty 
minutes preceding and following the times of high and low water, and from these 
values the curves shown in fig. 8 were drawn. Times of high and low water were, 
found by plotting the observations near high- and low-tide marks on a much larger 
scale, in the manner shown in fig. 3. The values so obtained are indicated on fig. 8, 
and are given in the following table: 

Difference in time between high- and low-water stages in four artesian wells at Oyster Bay, 
N. Y., and the tide in Oyster Bay Harbor. 

[Time expressed in hours and minutes of 24-hour clock.] 
HIGH TIDES. 



1903. 


May 
30. 


May 31. 


June 
1. 


June 2. 


June 3. 


June 

4. 


June 
10. 


June 
11. 


Aver- 
age 

lag. 








14.52 
14.43 






17.05 
16.54 


5.19 
5.12 


18.11 
18.02 


6.38 
6.29 




12.22 
12. 20 


Min- 
utes. 


Tide 
























Difference (Jag) ... 







.09 






.11 


.07 


.09 


.09 




.02 


0.8 












15.13 
14.43 


16.05 
15.44 




17.15 
16.54 


5.38 

5.12 


18.25 
18.02 


6.56 

6.29 








Tide 






























.30 


.21 




.21 


.26 


.23 


.27 






24.7 


































a0.20 

23. 48 


13.12 

12.20 




Tide 
































































.32 


.52 


.42 






























16.02 

14.43 


17.02 
15.44 




18.00 
16.54 


6.20 
5.12 


19.10 

18.02 


7.41 
6.29 








Tide 






























1.19 


1.18 




1.06 


1.08 


1.08 


1.12 






71.8 















LOW TIDES. 





20. 28 
20.10 


9.21 
9.04 








23.46 


12.08 




0.47 
.38 


17. 42 
17.33 


6.32 
6.20 




Tide 








23.36! 11.55 














Difference (lag) . . . 


.18 


.17 








. 10 . 13 




.09 


.09 


.12 


12.6 


















10.41 
10.00 


11.26 
10. 53 


a 0.10 


12.28 
11.55 


1.04 
.38 








Tide 








23.36 
































.41 


.33 


.34 




.33 


.26 






33.4 




































18.23 
17.33 


7.26 
6.20 




Tide 












































Difference (lag) ... 




















.50 


1.06 


.58 


























21.25 
20.10 


10.17 
9.04 




11.22 

10.00 


12.06 
10.53 


a 0.55 
23.36 




13.11 

11.55 


1.49 
.38 








Tide 
















Difference (lag) ... 


1.15 


1.13 




1.22 


1.13 


1.19 




1.16 


1.11 






75.6 









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LONG ISLAND OBSERVATIONS. 



17 



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nlinuat'h 

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3ERVATIONS WITH SELF-RECORDING GAGES. 

INSTRUMENTS USED. 

hi of the observations by means of self-recording gages was due to 
it. of Mr. F. 11. Newell and Prof. Charles S. Slichter. .Mr. Newell 

Feet adove low tide 



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visited the. island when the observations at Oyster Bay were in progress, and at once 
directed that three Friez water-stage registers be purchased. These were supple- 
irr 155—06— — 2 



18 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

mented by a gage constructed at Purdue University from the designs of Mr. Elwood 
Mead. 

Shortly after Mr. Newell' s visit, and before the Friez gages had been received, 
Prof. Charles S. Slichter arrived to take charge of the measurement of the rate of 
underflow. "* He kindly obtained the loan of five of the gages used by King in his 
experiments at Madison, Wis. ; a of these, four were week gages and one a one-day 
gage. The King gages were constructed by H. Green, Brooklyn, from barograph 
stands; they consist of an ordinary barograph cylinder, driven by a double-spring 
marine clock, the recording device being a simple lever on a cone bearing with a pen 
on one end and a place for attaching the float on the other. At the point where the 
clock motion is transmitted to the drum there was a slight amount of play which 
King found would introduce into the records an error of one to two hours. A fric- 
tion brake was, however, subsequently added to overcome this defect. The gages 
as received on Long Island were adjusted to magnify the fluctuations two or more 
times; and as this scale was entirely too great for the wells observed, the arm was 
extended until the ratio was 1:2 and a reduction of one-half thereby obtained. 
These gages were found to be more sensitive and reliable than any others used. By 
means of the simple lever with its cone bearing, the friction in this instrument is 
reduced to a minimum; the pens respond to the slightest movement of the water, 
and for the faithful reproduction of small fluctuations this simple type of gage is to 
be highly recommended. 

In the Mead gage the recording drum is vertical and the pen is carried by a carriage 
working between two upright guides. The wire supporting the carriage winds about 
a wheel connected with the wheel around which a wire from the float passes, and is 
lifted and lowered as the float descends and rises. The float and the wheel to which 
the pen is attached are so related in diameter that the curve traced is 10/42 of the true 
scale. There is with this gage, as with most gages where the recording cylinder is 
driven by the clock, some lost motion at the point of connection. This is particu- 
larly bad in this instrument. On the Long Beach records great care was used in set- 
ting the gage and the trouble was avoided, but some of the curves from well No. 8, at 
Douglaston, are clearly in error two to three hours. 

In the Friez gage & the recording drum is horizontal and is moved by the float, 
while the pen is moved by the clockwork. It was found that with the size of float 
that must be used in wells of small diameter the inertia of the drum in this instru- 
ment was such that it would not move until considerable head was developed and 
that small fluctuations were often not recorded. There was also a considerable 
amount of lost motion in the cogs used in the reducing device; and while an eccen- 
tric was provided for engaging the cogs closer, this could not be done without so 
increasing the friction that the instrument was useless. As a whole, this gage is not 
sufficiently sensitive for this kind of work, and the time element is entirely too small. 

A water-stage register manufactured by a western house was also used, but the 
results obtained were not satisfactory because of the poor mechanical construction of 
the gage. 

OBSERVATIONS ON WELL OF QUEENS COUNTY WATER COMPANY, 1 MILE WEST OF 

HEWLETT, N. Y. 

Through the kindness of the chief engineer of the Queens County Water Company, 
Mr. Charles R. Bettes, an artesian well 181 feet deep and 3,300 feet south of the 
company's pumping station (PL II) was covered with a shelter for the protection of 
the gages and placed at the disposal of the Survey. This well, as is common with 
the wells of about the same depth sunk near the pumping station, passes through a 
layer of surface sand and gravel, then through beds of clay and other fine material 

a Bull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892. 

b Manufactured by Julian P. Friez, Baltimore, Md. 



■ 


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U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
















































































































WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 


155 PL. Ill 


1 JUNE 30 ! JULY 1 | JULY 2 I JULY 3 JULY 4 | JULY 5 I JULY 6 JULY 7 | JULY 8 I JULY I 1 ,„, Y ,„ 

1903 M 12 M . 12 M 12 ' M 12 M .. 12 . ■ M 12 M 12 : M 12 i 19 I \. ' JULV 10 


JULY 11 


THERMOGRAPH RECORD ^ 90 

AT FLORAL PARK, „ 80 

NEW YORK. £ 70 

(6 miles north of well.) S 

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45 

AUTOGRAPHIC RECORD „§ 46 

OF FLUCTUATIONS IN Jg 4? 

A 181 FT. WELL ~ 

-° 48 

AT FENHURST JuJ 

(HEWLETT) >< 49 

NEW YORK. oj 50 
( Inverted curve) <j£ 
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BAROGRAPH RECORD o> 

w 3 30.0 

AT BRENTWOOD, N. Y. £0 
(26 miles north of well.) is 29 - 75 






















































































































































































































































































































































































240 

RECORD OF PUMPING AT 
QUEENS CO. WATER CO'S o 20 ° 
PUMPING PLANT < , 60 
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§ 120 

FENHURST, 5 
NEW YORK. i 8 ° 
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0.00 

RAINFALL RECORD 

AT FLORAL PARK, AND i 

S 0.50 
BRENTWOOD, N. Y. 

(Respectively 5 miles north and - 

26 miles northeast of wells.) H Loo 

From Friez self-recording gages. a 

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PARTIAL RECORD OF FLUCTUATIONS OF WATER LEVEL IN A 181-FOOT WELL AT HEWLETT, N. Y. 
From a King gage in charge of Francis L. Whitney and F. D. Rathbun, field assistants. Well curve is inverted. 



ol'SKKVATIONS WITH SELF-RECORDING GAGES. 19 

into a rather coarse gravel, which yields an abunda.nl supply of flowing water." 
The whole section is of Pleistocene age. There are in the immediate vicinity of the 
pumping station thirty-two 5-inch wells, ,">:; feel deep, and nineteen 6-inch wells, L50 
to 190 feel deep. These are arranged along two lines, one extending northwest and 
the other southwest from the pumping station. The extreme end of the south line 
is about 1,000 feet from the pumping station, and the well observed is therefore over 
2,000 feet from the nearest pumped well and but slightly to one side of the probable 

direction of flow. (PI. II.) It was the opinion of Mr. Bettes thai this well was not 

affected by pumping, and through a misinterpretation of the first records it was 
believed that this surmise was correct. Considerable discussion was therefore caused 
when it was found that the well fluctuations simulated the thermograph curve in a 
remarkable manner, that these fluctuations were inversely related to the tempera- 
ture (a rise in temperature causing a fall in water), and that the changes manifested 
themselves with a lag of but one or two hours behind apparently similar temperature 
fluctuations. (PI. III.) 

The hourly pumpage was kindly furnished by Chief Engineer Bettes, and this 
record, when plotted with the well curves, conclusively demonstrated that the 
rhythmical fluctuations were due more to pumpage than to temperature (PI. III). 
Fluctuations of a somewhat similar character are produced by temperature changes 
(see p. 54), and this element is doubtless present in this curve. On PI. Ill the effect 
of pumpage is clearly shown in the double cusps of the well curves on the night of 
July 5-6. The temperature curve shows no such variations. Similarly, the records 
on June 21, 25, and 26 show important differences between the well and temperature 
curves, which are largely due to pumping. These results are important because of 
the rapid rate of transmission. The effect of this pumping is felt at a distance of 2,000 
feet or more, with a time lag of but one or two hours. This contrasts sharply with 
the very slow transmission noted in the pressure changes due to tidal loading and to 
the inflow and outflow along rivers (see pp. 60, 65). It conclusively proves that the 
supply here is large; that the beds are quite porous, and that the normal water flow 
is rapid. 

In the records from the day gage, which was maintained here for the first ten 
days, the larger time scale brought out very clearly a series of regular minor fluctua- 
tions which were not clearly defined with the smaller scale of the week records. 
The most pronounced of this series recurs day after day and has a period of very 
nearly twenty minutes and a range of 0.06 to 0.08 inch. 

Besides these vibrations, with a period of twenty minutes, there are several fluctu- 
ations of smaller amplitude and period. One series has a period of about five or six 
minutes, but it is so involved that little can be definitely stated regarding it. An 
instrument with a large time scale, 1 or 2 inches to the hour, and a vertical scale of 
once or twice the normal would record, at this place, a very complicated series of 
small recurrent vibrations. 

OBSERVATIONS AT LONG BEACU, N. V. 

The deep flowing well of the Long Beach Association at Long Beach, N. Y. (PI. 
II), offered a most excellent opportunity for the observations of tidal fluctuations. 
It is situated on a narrow, sandy barrier beach, separated from the main island by 
a sea marsh 2 to 3 miles wide, cut by narrow tidal channels, and is entirely removed 
from the influence of any pumping station. 

This well is 3 inches in diameter and 386 feet deep. The water is obtained in 
sands of Cretaceous age and rises 2 to 4 feet above the surface of the ground or 10 to 
12 feet above sea level. The general geologic relations may be inferred from the 
diagrammatic cross section given in fig. 1 (p. 9). 

a Fur detailed record of strata in near-bv wells see Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 44, 1906, p. 225. 
fig. 6(5. 



20 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS 

The section reported by the driller, Mr. W. C. Jaegle, is as follows: 

Section of well of Long Beach Association, at Long Beach, N. Y. 

Feet. 

1. White sand .' 0-36 

2. Dark sand and creek mud 36- 40 

3. White gravel, containing saltwater 40- 51 

4. White sand 51-55 

5. Dark sand 55- 65 

6. Whitesand 65- 70 

7. White gravel 70- 73 

8. Yellowsand 73- 76 

9. Blue clay 76-82 

10. Yellow gravel 82- 90 

11. Creek mud 90-99 

12. Dark fine sand, containing lignite .' 99-101 

13. White sand . 101-111 

14. Dark sand 111-119 

15. White sand, with lignite 119-121 

16. Blue clay 121-135 

17. Fine white sand 135-143 

18. Gravel, with salt water 143-145 

19. Dark sand 145-156 

20. Gravel, with salt water 156-158 

21. Clay 158-174 

22. White sand, containing at 190 feet a log of lignitized wood 174-192 

23. White gravel and salt water ? . . .. 192-196 

24. Clay 196-200 

25. Fine sand 200-220 

26. Solid blue clay 220-270 

27. White sand and wood, containing fresh water, sweet and chalybeate 270-276 

28. Clay 276-282 

29. White sand and wood 282-297 

30. Blue clay 297-305 

31. White sand, wood, and water 305-308 

32. Blue clay 308-317 

33. White sand, containing wood and artesian water 317-325 

34. Blue clay 325-340 

35. White sand and mineral water; has considerable C0 2 , sparkling and 

effervescent 340-356 

36. Blue clay 356-360 

37. White sand and pure water 360-378 

38. Blue clay 378-380 

39. White sand 380-381 

40. White clay 381-383 

41. Fine sand, with artesian water 383-386 

Mr. F. D. Rathbun was placed in Charge of these observations and by a careful 
readjustment of the Mead gage obtained very excellent curves (PI. IV). Indeed, 
for this character of work the results from the Mead gage, as set up by Mr. Rath- 
bun, are better than from the Friez gage. 

It was impossible to make tide observations at this point, and the values plotted 
on the curve are taken from those predicted by the Coast and Geodetic Survey a 
for East Rockaway Inlet, which is 2.8 miles west of the well. The difference in time 

all. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Tide Tables for 1903, p. 346. 



U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



1903 



JULY 7 
M 4 8 12 16 20 M. 




<£ 




O Q -1. 



MEAN SEA 



' 2 - 5 l HI I I I I M I 




PARTIAL RECORD OF FLUCTUATIONS OF WATER LEVEL IN A 386-FOOT WELL AT LONG BEACH, N. Y, 
From a Mead gage in charge of F. D. Rathbun, field assistant, 



OKSKRY ATIONS WITH SELF-RECORDING GAGES. 



21 



between the tide at this point and on tlic beach in fronl of the well is probably nol 

more than tWO Or three minutes, since at New Inlet, •">.:! miles east (if the well, high 

and low tides occuronly from four to six minutes earlier than at East Rockaway 1 1 1 1« -t . 
The data regarding the tidal fluctuations in the channel behind Long Beach are 

very meager. Mr. Paul K. Ames, of the Long beach Association, through whose 
kindness it was possible to make observations on this well, states that the amplitude 
of the tide in broad and Long beach channels is about I feet, or the average of the 
fluctuations in the open ocean at this point, and that in the tides behind Long beach 
there is a lag of about one hour. 

Observations a few miles to the west in Jamaica Bay, which is separated from the 
main ocean by a sand bar similar to that at Long Beach, show that at various points 
behind the bar the high and low water are from thirty-two to eighty minutes behind 
the same stages in the ocean, and that the lag at high water is less by from six to 
thirty minutes than at low water." It may be confidently affirmed that a similar lag 
occurs in the channels behind Long Beach. 

The well curve obtained is a very smooth curve, which is apparently the simple 
resultant of the tides in the ocean and those inside of the bar. The extreme regu- 
larity of the low-tide values is believed to be due to the modifying influence of the 
tides in the inner channels, which, because of the shallow character of the outlets 
into the ocean, would have a much smaller low-tide variation than the ocean. The 
lag of the high and low waters in the well, compared with the ocean tide, is given in 
the following table: 

Table showing difference in lime between high ami low o vater in a 386-foot well at Long 
Beach, N. Y., and the tide as predicted by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey 
for East Rockaway Inlet (PL IV). 



June 
July 

July : 
July 
July- 
July 
July 
July 1 
July 
July- 
July 



1903. 



High water. 



Well. 



Time. 



2.20 
15.20 

3 20 
16.10 

4 05 
17.05 

7.05 
19. 25 

7. 35 
20 10 

8.35 
20.50 

9.15 
21.35 

9.55 
22.05 
10.10 
23.05 



Tide 



Time 



0.13 

12 53 
1.10 

13 52 
2.13 

14.49 

3.13 
15.46 

5.58 
18.14 

6.44 
13 55 

7.25 
19.34 

8.03 
20.11 

8.38 
20.46 

9.09 
21.19 



Differ- 
ence. 



Hours 
and min- 
utes 



1 10 
1.28 
1.07 
1.21 
0.52 
1.29 
1 07 
1.11 
0.61 
1.15 
1.10 
1.16 
1.12 
1.24 
1.17 
1.19 
1.31 
1.46 



Low water. 



Well. 



Time 

18 30 
7.00 

19 50 

8 00 

20 50 

9 20 
22 00 
10.30 



40 
12 20 

1.10 
12 50 

2.00 
13. 55 

2. 50 
14.35 

3.20 
15.15 

3.40 
15. 35 



Tide 



Tune 
18.09 

6.36 
19.10 

7 32 
20 14 

8.25 
21.16 

9.26 



23. 59 
11. 59 

44 
12.44 

1.24 
13.24 

2.02 
14.04 

2.36 
14.38 

3.11 
15. 09 



Differ- 
ence. 



Hours 
and min- 
utes. 

0.21 

24 

0.40 

0.28 

0.36 

0.55 

0.44 

1.04 



41 
0.21 
0.26 
0.06 
0.36 
0.31 
0.48 
0.31 
0.44 
0.25 
0.29 
0.26 



a U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Tide Table for 1903, p. 346. 



22 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 



Table shoiving difference in time between high and low water in a 386-foot well at Long 
Beach, N. Y. , and tide at East Rockaivay Inlet — Continued. 



Date. 



High water. 



Well. 



Tide. 



Differ- 
ence. 



Low water. 



Well. 



Tide. 



Differ- 
ence. 



July 13 . 
July 14. 
July 15. 

July 16. 



Time. 
11.50 
23.00 
11.40 
23.45 



Time. 

9.44 

21.54 

10.21 

22.28 



Hours 
and min- 
utes. 

2.06 

1.06 

1.19 

1.17 



12.20 
0.30 



11.03 
23.09 



1.07 
1.21 



July 17 

Average. 



1.14 



Time. 

4.50 
16.55 

5.10 
17.10 

5.55 
18.00 

6.20 
19. 20 

7.20 



Time. 

3.44 
15.44 

4.19 
16. 21 

4.55 
17.04 

5.34 
17.55 

6.27 



Hours 
and min- 
utes. 

1.06 

1.11 

0.51 

0.49 

1.00 

0.56 

0.46 

0.25 

0.53 



0.40 



It will be noted that the lag at high water is greater than at low, which is just 
the reverse of what occurs in tidal rivers, where the water rises much more rapidly 
than it falls and the low-water lag is long and the high-water lag short. This is an 
important result bearing on the relation between the fluctuations of the water in 
wells and the oceanic tide and clearly refutes the doctrine that the tidal fluctuations 
here are due to leakage and that the fluctuations are analogous to those of tidal 
rivers. (See pp. 63-67.) 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SCHREIBER WELL NEAR MILLBURN, N. Y. 

This well is located on the very edge of the sea marsh, about 2 miles south of Bald- 
win station on the Long Island Railroad (PI. II). It is 8 inches in diameter and 
the total depth determined by sounding is 288.6 feet. The water will, when piped 
up, rise about a foot above the surface of the ground. After an unsuccessful attempt 
to record the fluctuations here with a Friez gage, which gave no results because of 
the small amplitude of the fluctuations, the King gage used on the Queens County 
Water Company well near Hewlett was set up and the record obtained from July 17 
to August 5. This record shows the most erratic fluctuations obtained on Long 
Island" (PI. V). 

In all the other records, while there are always many factors present, certain fluc- 
tuations can be definitely ascribed to temperature, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, 
pumping, or transmitted tides, but here either the curves produced by several of 
these factors have been so superposed that the character of each is thoroughly 
masked or new factors have been introduced. The most evident characteristic of 
these curves is the greater rapidity and abruptness in the fall of the water than in 
its rise. Abrupt drops of this character are known to be produced by changes in 
barometric pressure and by pumping. It will be noted in this case that these fluc- 
tuations are not represented in the barograph curve, and a comparison with the 
record from the 504-foot well at Lynbrook (PI. VI), in which the geologic condi- 
tions are very similar, shows no correspondence, although the Lynbrook well is 
clearly greatly affected by barometric changes. 

The nearest pumping stations are at Rockville Center and Freeport, and these are 
small village plants. At Rockville Center there were at this time four 8-inch wells, 
about 50 feet deep, and at Freeport 4 wells, about 35 feet deep. At Rockville Center 
about 150,000 gallons per day were pumped, and at Freeport about 100,000. These 



























































































































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US. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 








































































































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1903. 




JULY 17 JULY 18 JULY 19 JULY 28 JULY 29 JULY 30 AUG. 3 AUG. 4 AUG. 5 1 
8N48M48N48M48N48 M 48N48M48N48M48N48 M 48N48M48N48M4SN48M 


TIDE CURVE AT NEW INLET ^ 3 

AS PREDICTED BY l> 2 

U.S. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY < j i 

[5 miles southeast of well.] F- < o 

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BAROGRAPH CURVE AT o 3 °- 25 
BRENTWOOD, N. Y. E 

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Q 6.5 
AUTOGRAPHIC RECORD OF w § 

FLUCTUATIONS OF WATER LEVEL |2 

IN A 289 FT. WELL u. 
o 
NEAR MILLBURN, N. Y. 8 .„ ,. 

i S 7 - 5 

[Inverted curve] | £ 
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THERMOGRAPH RECORD . gj 80 

AT FLORAL PARK, N. Y. 5§ 70 

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RAINFALL RECORDS 

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AT FLORAL PARK 

AND BRENTWOOD. N. Y. 

/ E 1.00 
(Respectively 5 miles north o. 

and a 

2 6 miles northeast of wells.) £ 1.50 

From Fne2 self-recording gages to 

Explanation: All rains at Brentwood £ 2-00 

are indicated with dotted lines and 

the word "Brentwood." All others 

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PARTIAL RECORD OF FLUCTUATIONS OF WATER LEVEL IN A 289-FOOT WELL NEAR MILLBURN, N. Y. 
From a King gage in charge of Francis L. Whitney and F. D. Rathbun, field assistants. Well curve is inverted. 



OBSERVATIONS WITH SELF-RECORDING GAGES. 23 

.--i tions are, respectively, L.9 and 2.4 miles from the Schreiber well (PI. [I). The 
Rockville Center pumping station is, moreover, nearer the deep Lynbrook well than 
il e Schreiber well, and the Lynbrook well shows no such fluctuations. It is there- 
fore believed that these fluctuations are not due to pumping. 

A third hypothesis is that tin- fluctuations arc largely tidal, and that they represent 
tlif complicated stresses resulting from the culmination of the tides at different times 
in the neighboring network of creeks and channels. The conditions near this well 
are regarded as quite favorable for complex tides, hut the resultant of these would 
he represented by a smooth curve, as is show n by the Long Beach well. The normal 
tidal curve in such narrow channels would, moreover, show a rapid rise and a gradual 
fall, while tlu> well curve, is just the reverse. 

The fluctuations in this well are. so far as known, unique. The geologic condi- 
tions are believed to correspond in a general way with those in the 368-foot well at 
Long Beach and the 504-foot well at Lynbrook, both in the same region, but the 
characteristics of the curves are entirely different and apparently not related to either. 

OBSERVATIONS AT LYNBROOK, X. Y. 

A station was established one-half mile west of Lynbrook (PL II). At this point 
there were two test wells, one 504 feet deep and the other 72 feet, belonging to the 
Queens County Water Company. Through the kindness of Mr. Franklin B. Lord, 
president, and Mr. Charles R. Bettes, chief engineer, these wells were covered with 
a shelter, and a third well, 14 feet deep, driven about 6 feet from the other two. 
This gave a shallow surface well, a "deep well" (comparable to many of those used 
at the Brooklyn waterworks pumping stations west of this point) which flowed at 
the surface for about half the time, and a very deep artesian well, all within a few 
feet of each other and away from the zone of influence of any jmmping station. 

About 15 feet from the wells there is a small ground -water fed brook, the bottom of 
which has an elevation of about 10 feet above sea level; the ground at the wells is 
1 1 .3 feet above sea level, and the crest of the low swell, 1,000 feet to the west, about 
20 feet (PI. II, p. 16). The surface material is yellow loam, ranging from a few 
inches to 3 feet thick, then rather coarse sand and gravel. No record was preserved 
of the strata penetrated in the 72- and 504-foot wells, but a new well sunk during the 
summer of 1904, about 300 feet west of this group of wells, gave the following section: 

Section of well of Queens County Water Company, one-half mile west of Lynbrook, N. Y. 

Tisbury: Feet. 

1. Coarse yellow quartz sand; no erratic material 0-29 

2. Light-gray sand 29-31 

3. Same as No. 1 31-73 

Cretaceous? : 

4. Light-gray silty clay 73-89 

5. Light-yellow medium sand; no erratic material 89-150 

Cretaceous: 

6. Fine to medium gray lignitic sand 150-158 

7. Very fine black micaceous lignitiferous silt 158-200 

8-9. Very fine dark-colored lignitiferous sand 200-228 

10. Medium light-gray sand, with small amount of lignite 228-340 

11. Dark-colored lignitiferous silty clay 340-363 

12. Medium dirty-yellow sand, lignitic 363-403 

13. Medium to coarse gray sand 403-536 

The water in the 504-foot well, during the time of observation, stood from 0.8 foot 
to 2.2 feet above the surface; in the 72-foot well from 0.6 foot below to 0.5 foot above 
the surface, and in the 14-foot well from 0.6 foot below to 0.2 foot above the sur- 



24 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

face. The water in the 14-foot well rose above the surface three or four times for 
periods of a few hours. The elevation of the water table under the low swell to the 
west was probably about 13 feet. 

Mr. Francis L. Whitney was placed in charge of the observations at this point, and 
King gages were installed on supports clamped to the well casings. The gages were 
maintained from June 25 to September 15, and some of the results are given in 
PL VI. These give a large amount of important material bearing not only on purely 
scientific problems, but on some of the live economic problems of the region. It will 
be noticed that as a whole the curves of these wells are parallel. This bears very 
directly on the old question of the source of the water in the deep wells on Long 
Island. It has long been a favorite hypothesis that in some mysterious way large 
quantities of water were introduced by great underground streams from the New 
England States, and this 504-foot well was one of the wells which were supposed to 
strike one of these streams. It has already been shown « that the source of the water 
in the deep wells on Long Island is from the rain that falls on the surface (see p. 10), 
and the really remarkable agreement of the general shape of these curves furnishes 
additional confirmation, pointing as it does to close interrelation and a common 
source. 

The behavior of these wells during rain storms shows that rain may affect the 
water level in wells in two ways, (1) without the water reaching the ground- water 
table, and (2) by actual infiltration and addition to the ground water. In both 
cases the effect is greatest in the shallow well. In the first case all wells commence 
to rise as soon as the rain begins, and rise abruptly, sometimes several inches. That 
this can not be due to actual infiltration is shown by its instantaneous character and 
by the fact that the water in the shallow 14-foot well, driven entirely in sand, rose 
above the surface of the ground four times under such circumstances. Such rises, 
moreover, produce no permanent deflection of the well curve. (See record for Aug. 
18-22, PI. VI.) 

This sudden rise is due to a number of factors. In the first place, when the soil 
above the water table is filled with air the addition of water to the surface practi- 
cally seals the outlets for the air and the weight of the rain is transmitted by this 
confined air to the water table. The effect of such a transmission is to hasten the 
discharge of the water at the ground-water outlet, and so produce an immediate rise 
in the streams. In this manner rains which never reach the ground-water table 
and which do not contribute directly to stream flow may immediately produce a 
greatly increased stream discharge. It should be noted in this connection that the 
well always rose before the adjacent brook, although the brook might later reach a 
higher elevation. 

In the second case, when the water in the wells is elevated by the actual percola- 
tion of water, the water rises gradually and reaches its highest point several days or 
weeks after the rain, rather than in several minutes. In the case of the heavy rains 
which occurred on August 28, the 14-foot well reached its highest point before noon 
on the 29th, the 72-foot well at about 6 o'clock on the 29th, and the 504-foot well at 
noon on the 30th. There are three factors concerned in this last rise: (1) The 
instantaneous transmission of pressure due to weight of rain on the surface in the 
vicinity of the well; (2) actual percolation in the vicinity of the well, and (3) pro- 
gressive deformations resulting from the weight of the rain at more distant points. 
The rise in the deeper wells is wholly due to the first and third causes. The curve 
in this case is actually displaced and returns to its former position only gradually, 
instead of at once, as in the case described above. 

Barometric changes affect the 504-foot well most, but are occasionally perceptible 
in the 72-foot well. Temperature changes produce rhythmical daily fluctuations in 
the 14- and 72-foot wells; in the first the changes are very pronounced, amounting 

a Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 44, 1906, pp. 67-69. 



IIDCV1M- I'l'lllMJ \IMTI1 kJU'I I'.UV. 



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OBSERVATIONS WITH SELF-RECORDING GAGES. 



25 



t<> as much as I A inches a day. The 504-foot well showed a regular fluctuation with 
two high and two low waters a day. The fluctuation, however, Is not progressive, 
and so is not tidal. 

The curve from the 504-fool well shows agreal number of minor periodic oscilla- 
tions, but the time scale is not sufficiently great to study them satisfactorily. The 
most pronounced of the series has a period of about forty minutes. The 72-foo1 well 
occasionally shows well-marked secondary oscillations, with a period of approxi- 
mately eighty minutes. For a careful study of these, however, a much larger gage 
w ith a large time scale is demanded. 



OBSERVATIONS AT DOUtiLASTON, N. Y. 

In the winter of 1902 and 1903 a number of shallow wells were sunk along the base 
of hills, east of Alley Creek, and near "The Alley," an old settlement just south of 
Douglastoh, X. Y. (PI. Vll), for the Citizens' Water Supply Company. Six of these 
are flowing wells, and in the other two the water comes very near the surface. Through 
the kindness of Mr. Cord Meyer and his son, Mr. J. Edward Meyer, president and 
superintendent, respectively, of the Citizens' Water Supply Company, the flowing 
wells were piped up beyond the limit of flow and thus prepared for gaging. 

The relative elevation, depth, and head in these wells are shown in the following 
table: 

Elevations in welh of Citizens' Water Supply Company, at Douglaslon, N. Y. 





Elevation 

of surface 

above sea 

level. 


Depth of 
bottom of 
pipe below 
sea level. 


Average 
height 

above sea 
level to 
which 

water will 
rise if 

piped up. 




Feet. 
17.2 
20.2 
10. 2 

5 

5 

10.8 
10.1 

9.8 
10.5 


Feet. 


Feet. 
17.2 


Well No. 1 

Well No. 2 


20.5 

25 

28 

25 

39 

35 

30 

17 


19 
9 


Well No. 3 


8.5 


Well No. 4 


18 


Well No. 5 


18 


Well No. 6 .' 


19 


Well No. 7 


17 


Well No. 8 : 


15 







The strata encountered vary considerably; some of the wells penetrate nothing 
but sand and gravel, and in others clay beds of greater or less thickness are found. 
The water is derived from the adjacent hill mass, the height of the ground water in 
which determines the head in these wells. 

The tidal marsh to the west is a mass of soft black mud largely covered with a mat 
of growing vegetable matter, which is sufficiently firm to walk on, but which gives at 
every step. This surface mat of roots is often sufficiently tenacious to hold up when 
undermined by the small streams formed by the many springs that occur at the base 
of the hills, and these streams often flow through underground passages beneath the 
turf. The underlying mud or black ooze is over 10 feet thick in the upper end of 
the mud flat, and Mr. D. L. Van Nostrand states that, in driving piles for a dock 
at the bridge, the depth to "solid ground" was found to be 65 or 70 feet. The arte- 
sian pressure beneath this mud has caused the ground to rise in several places, with 
the resultant production of many small rapids (PI. VII). At a number of points 
near the upper end of the basin, where the mud is thin, the water has broken 



26 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATEE LEVEL IN WELLS. 

through and produced low mud cones or mud volcanoes. a The drilling of the arte- 
sian wells and the fact that they were allowed to flow freely have perhaps in part 
relieved the pressure here, and during the three months the cones were observed 
they did not change materially, although on several occasions mud was seen rising 
from the craters and flowing down the sides. Three hundred feet north of the mud 
flat and on the east bank of Alley. Creek there is a lesser area of mud which is not 
covered at low tide. In this there is a marked mud flow, which is likewise probably 
connected with the artesian waters under discussion. 

Mr. Francis L. Whitney was placed in charge of the work here, and he prepared 
wooden shelter boxes covered with tarred paper. These were securely clamped to 
the top of the well pipes, which were steadied by means of guy lines. & A tide gage 
was established on the end of the crib of the drawbridge on the main turnpike. 
(PI. VII. ). The crib furnished a very good still box, and the locality is as near the 
wells as it was possible to get, for to the south the creek bed is uncovered at low tide. 

The equipment consisted of 3 Friez gages and 1 Mead gage. The Mead gage 
was placed on well No. 8 and furnished the only record running through the 
whole of the time of observation. One of the Friez gages was placed at the draw- 
bridge during the whole period, but from one cause and another no record was 
obtained before August 6, and after that time the record was not complete. 
By shifting the remaining gages records were obtained for a time from all the 
wells but No. 3. Some of the curves obtained from these observations are shown in 
PI. VIII. 

All these wells are clearly tidal, but when the question of the rate of propagation 
of tidal effect is considered many difficulties are encountered and the extreme com- 
plexity of the problem at once becomes evident. The curves, while broadly resem- 
bling each other, show many minor points of difference, which must be attributed 
to the varying shape of the tidal wave in the mud flat near the wells and the conse- 
quent complexity and variation of the stresses involved. Thus the records from 
wells 2 and 8 show that, while the relative amplitudes of the high tides agree 
perfectly and both show a tendency toward a double cusp at high tide, in well No. 2 
the second cusp is characteristically greater, while in well No. 8 the first cusp is often 
the greater; compare curves from July 27 to 29. The low-tide curves also show marked 
differences; thus, in well No. 2 there is a continued fall until the tide turns, which 
it does sharply; in No. 8 there is a long period of stagnation and the curve is rounded 
when the rise begins. Evidently these curves are not readily comparable with the 
tide gage at the bridge nor with each other, for each represents the resultant of a 
different set of forces. The conditions for the production of such differences are very 
favorable. The semiliquid marsh mud yields readily to all pressure changes, how- 
ever slight; the liquidity of the mud varies greatly from point to point, and while 
the artesian water does not commonly escape through the mud covering it may, as 
shown by the mud cones, do so at any time, and such a point of relief would affect 
adjacent wells differently. 

Another factor making exact time comparisons difficult is the small scale of the 
records and the great amount of lost motion in the Mead gage. The Mead records 
show unquestionable time errors of one to two hours, and for this reason the end 
values are more important than the initial ones of each record. Where evident 
errors occur in the record of the Mead gage for well No. 8 they have been cor- 
rected as far as possible, and an attempt has been made to indicate on the diagram 
the various details affecting the time values so far as known. For this purpose the 
end of each of the original record sheets has been indicated on PI. VIII. 

« See Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 46, 1906, PI. XXVII, C. 

b An illustration of the gage box on well No. 4 will be found in Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 44, 
1906, PI. XIV. 



U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 166 PL. VII 




SKETCH MAP SHOWING LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHIC SURROUNDINGS OF WELLS OF 
CITIZENS' WATER SUPPLY COMPANY NEAR DOUGLASTON, N. Y. 



Black dots indicate location of mud volcanoes. 
By A. C. Veatch, 1903. 



LONG ISLAND OBSERVATIONS. 27 

OBSERVATIONS OB THE NEW YORK CITY COMMISSION 1 ON 
ADDITIONAL WATER SUPPLY.^ 

The Long Island division <>!' the commission on additional water supply under the 
direction of Mr. W. F. spear, division engineer, during the period from the middle 
of April to the hist of October, L903, made many observations on the water level in 
wells mi Long Island. In all aboul 1,200 wells were observed at intervals of from 

niie to three days by means of steel tapes titted with enp sounders. From these 
observations Mr. Spear endeavored to obtain the velocity of the downward capillary 
flow of the water on Long Island. 

Meteorological stations, equipped with self-recording instruments, were established 
at Brentwood and Floral Park ( I'l. I, p. 9). It was from these records that the 
thermograph, barograph, and rainfall curves shown on Pis. Ill, V, and VI were 
obtained. 

Mr. Spear likewise obtained from the records of the Brooklyn waterworks data 
regarding the fluctuations of the water in shallow wells on the south shore and the 
effect of pumping at Merrick and Agawam. 

a Spear, Walter E., Long Island .sources: Kept. Commission on Additional Water Supply for the City 
of New York, Nov. 30, 1903, New York, 1904, appendix 7, pp. 617-806 



PART II. 

GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF WATER 
LEVEL IN WELLS. 

CLASSIFICATION OF CAUSES. 

The vertical fluctuations of the ground-water table or the changes in the level of 
the water in wells may be grouped as follows: 

A. Fluctuations due to natural causes. 

I. Rainfall and evaporation. 

1. Fluctuations not depending on single showers. 

a. Regular annual fluctuations. 

b. Irregular secular changes. 

2. Fluctuations produced by single showers. 

a. By transmission of pressure without any actual addition to the ground water. 

b. By the actual addition of rain to the ground water. 
II. Barometric changes. 

III. Thermometric changes. 

1. Fluctuation directly related to temperature. 

2. Fluctuation inversely related to temperature. 

a. At the surface of the ground-water table, directly through temperature changes. 

b. In deeper zones, by pressure changes produced by fluctuations of the preceding 

class. 

IV. Fluctuations produced by adjacent bodies of surface water: Rivers, lakes, the ocean. 

1. By changes in rate of ground-water discharge. 

2. By seepage. 

3. By plastic deformation due to varying loads. 
V. Fluctuations due to geologic changes. 

B. Fluctuations due to human agencies. 

1. Settlement, deforestation, cultivation, drainage. 

2. Irrigation. 

3. Dams. 

4. Underground water-supply developments. 

5. Unequal loading. 

C. Fluctuations due to indeterminate causes. 

The relation between the fluctuations due to natural causes may be stated in this 
way: On the broad and irregular curves produced by the secular climatic and geo- 
logic changes are superposed the regular annual fluctuations, which are perhaps the 
most characteristic and important of the ground-water fluctuations due to natural 
causes; and on these, in turn, are superposed the simple rainfall, barometric, ther- 
mometric, tidal, and flood fluctuations. This complex curve, made up of many regu- 
lar and irregular elements, is further modified by human agencies. The cumulative 
effect of these human agencies is irregular and the result is to modify — indeed, often 
to largely alter — the character of the broad irregular curves produced by secular cli- 
matic and geologic changes. Yet some of these human modifications have a periodic 
value which, in the case of cultivation, for example, may greatly change the ampli- 
tude of the annual fluctuations, or, in the case of pumping or the change of water 
level behind a milldam, may give rise to rather regular daily fluctuations. 
28 



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PARTIAL RECORD OF FLUCTUATIONS OF WATER LEVEL IN WELLS NEAR DOUGLASTON, N. Y., AND OF TIDE IN ADJOINING CREEK. 

From gages in charge of Francis L. Whitney, field assistant. Curves are inverted. Curves for well No. 8 are from Mead gage . all others are from F Tie; : gages. At P°<£">££ * on wel1 curve No ' 8 loSl ' 
& s B in original records; this has been approximately corrected in this diagram. Short vertical lines indicate ends of original record sneets. 



FLUCTUATIONS OF WATER IN WELLS. 



29 



FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY NATURAL CAUSES. 
RAINFALL AM) EVAPORATION. 

REGULAR ANNUAL FLUCTUATIONS. 
GENERAL CHARACTER \M> CAUSE. 

Woldfich, from a study of nine years' observations on a 19-foot well at Salzburg, con- 
cl ik led that tlic rise ami fall of tin* ground water stands in no relation whatever to tin: 




Fig. 9. — Yearly rainfall and water-level curves in shallow wells in middle Europe (alter Soyka). 
The curves are duplicated for a second year to facilitate comparisons. 

amount of rain, since with the same quantity of precipitation it at times rises, and again 
falls, and even with considerably increasing quantities of rain it often falls constantly." 

.. oVVoldrich, Johann Nepomuk, Mitt. d. Teehn. Klubs zu Salzburg, 1869, Heft 1, Zeitschrift d. 
Oterreichischen (Jesellschaft tvir Meteorologie, Bd. 4, 1869, pp. 273-279 Penck's Geographische 
Abhandlungen, Btl. 2, Heft 3. Wien, 1888, p. 23. 



30 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IINT WELLS. 



While so broad a statement is not entirely true for all localities in the North Tern 
perate Zone, yet it properly emphasizes the fact that the relation between the 
ground-water fluctuations and the rainfall is not the simple one which might be 
inferred ; from the statement that the rainfall is the source of the ground water. 
Observations at many points in the North Temperate Zone have shown that the 




Geneva, N. Y 



Bryn Mawr, Pa, 



Millburn, 
Long I$land s N. Y 



Michigan 

ans/ng } Mich. 



Geneva, N. Y. 
('687- ss) 



Bryn Mawr.Pa. 

y (l886-95) 

Michiqan. 

Q878/0O-97) 

A nnArbor/M/c/?. 

(1885 -/90/J 

Mil/burn, 
Long Is/and^.Y. 

QC97-/903) 

Lansing, Mich. 
(1885-/300 



Fig. 10.— Yearly rainfall and water-level curves in shallow wells in the United States. The curves 
are duplicated for a second year to facilitate comparisons. 

ground water fluctuates in a yearly period with a single maximum and minimum, 
and that this curve generally does not correspond with the rainfall curve (figs. 9, 10). 
Indeed, at Frankfurt, Bremen, Berlin, and Briinn, the highest point of the ground 
water is in the spring months at the time of least rainfall (fig. 9). The yearly 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION. 



31 



curves of the ground water are much more regular than the rainfall curve, ami on 
the whole in general shape they mosl resemble the annual temperature curve (fig. 
II i. The reason tor this difference is the Bimple one thai the fluctuations of the 
ground water depend not only <>n the absolute amount of the rainfall, l>ut on the 
quantity that reaches the zone of complete saturation, or the ground-water table, 
and ilic time consumed in so doing. The quantity is affected by many factors, 
among which arc the evaporation from the surface of the ground, the evaporation 
or transpiration from plants, the quantity retained in the soil above the zone of satu- 
ration, and the amount that runs directly off the surface without ever penetrating 

the ground. The time element is affected by the porosity and moisture content of 
the soil, the character of the covering, and to a greater or less extent by the height 
of the soil column. The general result is that the water is delivered gradually to 
the /one of complete saturation, and as the effects of single rains are thus generally 



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Pig. 11.— Annual curves based upon mean monthly averages of ground-water level at Bryn 
Mawr, Pa., a and temperature and rainfall at Philadelphia, Pa.,?> for the period 1886-1895, 
showing the general resemblance of the ground-water and temperature curves. The 
exact agreement of the maximum ground- water level and the maximum temperature is 
unusual. 

minified and often entirely blotted out, a relatively smooth curve results (PI. IX). 
This yearly period of the ground water is largely due to the periodic character of the 
evaporation, including plant transpiration. This depends on the temperature, and 
the net result for the year is a simple curve of the same shape as the mean tempera- 
ture curve, although inversely related to it, hence the general resemblance of the 
yearly well curve to the temperature curve. Were the rain uniform throughout the 
year, and were there no lag due to transmission or unmelted snow, the maximum 
ground-water level would occur at the time of the minimum temperature and satu- 
ration deficit of the atmosphere, or, in the North Temperate Zone, in January. The 
effect of the irregular distribution of the rainfall is to change the time of the occur- 
rence of this maximum. A moderate excess of rain in the summer, such as occurs 

"Observations of W. S. Auchincloss; Waters within the Earth and Laws of Rainflow, 1897. 
^Observations of U. S. Weather Bureau; Annual Summary Pennsylvania Climate and Crop Service. 



32 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 



at Frankfurt-am -Main, causes the maximum to advance to March, while at Bremen, 
Berlin, and Briinn, where the difference between the summer and winter rainfall is 
progressively greater, in the order named, the maxima occur respectively in March, 
April; and May (fig. 9). The extremely great summer precipitation at Munich and 
Salzburg, together with the low rainfall in January, causes the maximum at those 
places to advance to July and August. ■ 

In this connection the observations of (1) Dickinson and Evans, (2) Greaves, and 
(3) Lawes and Gilbert, near London, are of great interest. All of these observers 
endeavored to determine the amount of rain actually contributed to the ground 




Fig. 12. — Results of English percolation experiments. In the Dickinson and Evans experiments the 
gages were buried in the ground; one was filled with ordinary Hertfordshire soil (a sandy, grav- 
elly loam) and covered with sod; the other was filled with chalk and covered with a thin layer 
of soil and sod. In the Lawes and Gilbert observations columns of a rather heavy loam with 
clay subsoil in their natural state of consolidation were built in with brick and cement; no veg- 
etation was allowed to grow on the gages, which were surrounded by meadow land. Curves are 
based on the monthly averages from September 1, 1870, to August 31, 1902. 

w T ater. Each used vessels with impervious sides and pervious bottoms, sunk level 
with the surface of the ground. The water percolating through the soil columns was 
collected and compared with the yield of the adjacent rain gages. In the case of the 
Dickinson and Evans and the Greaves experiments the boxes w r ere filled with mate- 
rial supposed to represent the average soil of the region, in both cases a sandy loam. 
In the Lawes and Gilbert experiments actual blocks of soil were undermined and the 
results represent the amount of rainfall passing through a heavy loam with a clay 
subsoil in its natural condition of consolidation, but not covered with vegetation. The 
average results obtained are given in the following table and are partially shown in 
a graphic manner in fig. 12. 



U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 


























WATER-SUPPLY PAPEF 


NO 


. 1 05 


PL. IX 


! Meiers 
above sea 

32a 

310. 

300. 

290 

280 

270. 
S W 

260- 


; 

: 




Water lev P | i„ r . 
Water level March 


1 No. 8 

ha River 

mer BrooK 

No. 10 










===— E« 




I'KUM 








s - " 




Residual mass curve 

showing 

excess rainfall in millimeters 

July 1886 Dec. 1890. 
at Hohe Warte station, Vienna. 

'lalirl/uchnikr k.t. Caauil-AuUtt ICr s 
KtttorolOgtl und EnlinagnetiMijus. - 




































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Meters 
above sea 

Wall No 112. Suifar« elevation 829.99 
Bottom of well 276. 4»j 




















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290 
289 
288 






































































































































































286 
285 
284 
283 
282 
231 
280 


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Well No. 1. Surface elevation 208.721 
Bottom of wall 273.50J 

Well No. 43. Surface elevation 206.881 












































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273 
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Woll N...1. Woil.i.-e elt-vdiioii 276 *1\ 

Bolton, of well 265.24 
Well No.fi. buifiue elevation 273. Tt* 

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264 
263 


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This illustrates regular annual fluctuations, irregular seculars that the well fluctuations are generally 
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and minimum. ( From Bericht des Ausschusses fur c 













































































































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J — Water level March 1892 a 
PROFILE SHOWING LOCATION ANO DEPTH OF WELLS 


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LUCTUATIONS OF WATER LEVEL IN WELLS NEAR WIENER NEUSTADT, AUSTRIA. 
tuations, and iha increase in amplitude of the fluctuations with (he depth of the ground-water table from 1r 



FLUCTUATIONS DUB TO RAINFALL AM> EVAPORATION. 



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34 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATEE LEVEL IN WELLS. 

Of these the Lawes and Gilbert results are perhaps of the greatest value, because 
they more nearly represent the normal conditions, and they extend through a sufii- 
cientlydong period to obliterate temporary variations. While the quantitative values 
obtained from these experiments differ, the qualitative results, as shown by fig. 12, 
are essentially the same. All except the hare sand give curves of the same character 
as those obtained from the actual observation of ground-water fluctuations. The low 
percentage of water which passes through the soil in summer is emphasized by all, 
as is also the greater contribution during the winter months. Even in the bare sand, 
where the water sinks at once and so loses little by evaporation, a downward tend- 
ency of the curve during the summer months is evident. The effect of the heavy 
precipitation in the fall is particularly evident in the Lawes and Gilbert results (fig. 
12), where it clearly hastened the time of occurrence of the maximum ground- water 
percolation by about two months. 

EFFECT OF DEPTH OF SOIL ABOVE ZONE OF COMPLETE SATURATION ON TIME OF OCCUR- 
RENCE OF YEARLY MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM OF GROUND-WATER LEVEL. 

It has been suggested that the soil above the ground- water table tends to destroy 
the effect of single rains by causing the water to be delivered gradually to the zone 
of complete saturation, whose upper surface is the water table. In the case of the 
English experiments at Rothamsted (Lawes and Gilbert) and Hemel Hempstead 
(Dickinson and Evans) the maximum percolation occurs from November to January, 
yet the wator in the wells in that region, while commencing to rise about December, 
did not reach its maximum elevation until March, a a delay of about three months. 
Yet in any attempt to calculate the rate of percolation from these data two difficul- 
ties are encountered. In the first place the yearly maximum occurred at about the 
same time in this region in wells of all depths, and, furthermore, the Rothamsted 
results (fig. 12) show no very important difference in the time in which the water 
is discharged through 20, 40, and 60 inches of soil so far as it relates to the time of 
occurrence of the yearly maximum. In the second place the underground water is 
in motion, a certain amount is discharged at all times, and the amount increases 
with the head. The case is not, therefore, the simple one where water is caught in a 
measuring tube, as in the percolation experiments above described, but the water 
must reach the ground-water table at a rate greater than the rate of the outflow, else 
no rise will take place. 

At Wiener Neustadt, Austria, a similar relation has been demonstrated by the 
observations made between 1883 and 1895, in connection with the Wiener Neustadt 
deep-well project for the supply of Vienna. 6 These wells are in a valley filling of 
fluvio-glacial material, somewhat irregular in character, which Suess describes as a 
series of old deltas. c The wells extend from Fisha River, a spring-fed stream, south- 
westerly along the Southern Railway. The land and the ground-water table beneath 
both rise gradually in this direction, but while the water table is at the surface of 
the ground at Fisha River, 6£ miles south, at St. Agyden, it is from 140 to 170 feet 
from the surface, the exact depth depending on the time of year. (See section at 
top of PI. IX. ) The curves obtained from this series of wells, extending roughly 
at right angles to the slope of the water plane, are entirely concentric, and the maxi- 
mum and minimum occur at the same time, irrespective of depth of soil above the 
ground-water table. It would seem to follow from these data that no very satisfac- 
tory determination of the rate of downward percolation can be made from the rela- 
tion of the time of greatest precipitation, or percolation, to the time of maximum 

aClutterbuck, James. Min. Proe. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 2, 1842, p. 156. 

bBericht des Ausschusses fur die Wasserversorgung Wiens: Osterreichischer Ingenieur- und 
Architekten-Verein, 1895. 

clbid., p. 32; see also Bericht iiber die Erfolge der Wiener Wasserleitungs-Commission, 1864; Karrer, 
F., Geologie der Franz Josephs-Quellenleitung: Abhandlungen der K.-k. geologischen Reichs,an- 
stalt, 1877. 



FLUCTUATIONS DTK TO RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION. 35 

ground-water level. The rise of the water is nol determined by the simple delivery 
of water to the zone of complete saturation, bul by the relation of the water so 
delivered to the rate of outflow. If the water is lowering, a certain amount is con- 
sumed in checking thai tendency, and only the excess over the outflow IS available 
for raising the ground-water level. Moreover, in several carefully observed instances, 
the depth of the soil above the ground water has been shown to have no effect on 
the time Of occurrence of the yearly maximum. 

The short-period observations on Long Island, New York, during the summer of 
L903, however, gave quite different results from those obtained at Wiener Neustadt. 
The conditions do not appear to he essentially different ; the glacial sands and gravels 
of the south plain of Long Island slope gradually to the ocean and in a similar way 
the valley glacial gravels of Wiener Neustadt slope to Fisha River, and there is 
apparently no great difference in the irregularity and complexity of the bedding. 
The Wiener Neustadt or Steinfeld Valley, it is true, is traversed by a large river, the 
Leitha, whose stages depend on the conditions affecting its headwaters in the moun- 
tains, but, observations have shown that this stream, because of the silted character 
of its bed, affects only a few wells in its immediate vicinity, and is not to be regarded 
as a disturbing factor. (Compare the river stages with well curves on PL IX.) On 
Long Island the measurements in charge of Mr. W alter E. Spear, department engi- 
neer of the commission on additional water supply/' showed that, during the summer 
of 1903, the highest stage of the ground water occurred, as a rule, earlier in the shal- 
low than in the deeper wells (tig. 13). Where the water level was less than 20 feet 
from the surface the highest stage of the ground water occurred in April, while wdiere 
the water level was 60 to 75 feet below the surface it did not occur until August. 
The increase of the retardation was not always uniform. Thus the highest water in 
a 35-foot well near Jamaica (No. 551) occurred in May, while in a well of the same 
depth near Deer Park (No. 388) it did not occur until August, although in a well 
near Hicksville (No. 237), of about the same depth, the maximum occurred in May. 
Whether this irregularity is typical or is only a result of the rather peculiar season 
in which the measurements were made could be determined only by observations 
covering a period of years, instead of months. It should, however, be stated in this 
connection that along the south shore, where the Brooklyn water department has 
observed shallow wells for several years, the curve for 1903 is not greatly different 
from that of preceding years, indicating, so far as the shallow wells are concerned, 
that the year is not to be regarded as an abnormal one (fig. 15, p. 39). On the other 
hand, the results are so at variance with the thirteen years' observations at Wiener 
Neustadt, which apparently cover similar conditions, that further confirmation of 
these Long Island results, by additional observations, is needed before any conclu- 
sions can be drawn. Certainly the Wiener Neustadt data indicate that the depth of 
the soil above the ground-water table is of no importance in determining the time of 
occurrence of the maximum ground-water level. On the other Hand, the Long 
Island observations suggest that a difference in thickness of 60 feet may delay the 
time of the occurrence of the maximum level four months. 

The curves showing the result of the Long Island work indicate further that, in 
the soil in question, single showers frequently produce yery definite effects in shallow 
wells, and that such effects become less as the depth of unsaturated material above 
the water table increases. Indeed, in the wells where the water is 30 or 40 feet 
below the ground, the curves are relatively smooth or the variations bear no evident 
relation to the rainfall. 6 Spear has attempted to trace the time of rise, due to given 
showers, from the shallow through the deeper wells, and so determine the rate of 

a Long Island sources: Rept. New York City Commission on Additional Water Supply, 1904, appen- 
dix 7, PI. IV, incorrectly numbered PI. VI, p. 792. 

6Many of the wells observed by the commission were open, dug wells, which were in use, and the 
minor fluctuations are partially due to this cause, as well as to barometric and thermometric changes. 



36 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 




FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION. 



37 



downward percolation or downward capillary ll<>\\ . There are certain difficulties in 
the way of determining the value soughl in this manner. In the firsl place, the 
fluctuations in the shallow wells can not [>e satisfactorily correlated with those in the 
deep ones, and the only line which can he followed through the diagram prepared by 
spear is the time of maximum ground water, which, as indicated above, in this 
region during the time of observation, in general lags proportionally to the depth. 
This gives a fairly regular curve and the remaining curves have been inferred on 
either side of this one. The yearly maximum, however, can scarcely be attributed 
to a single rain, bul represents rather the culmination of a whole series of events, 
and hence can nol be used as a basis of such a calculation. 

In the case of regions like Wiener Neustadt it is clear that the results from calcu- 
lations of this character would have no meaning, and, indeed, what do the values 

really represent onLong Island? 

IRREGULAR SECULAR FLUCTUATIONS. 

The observations ol Dickinson and Evans and of Lawes and Gilbert with percola- 
tion gages developed the fact that, as a rule, not only did more water percolate in 
wet than in dry years, but that the percentage of rain water which passed through 
the soil columns was usually much greater in wet years than in dry ones. Thus 
while the average yearly percolation of 1870-1902 at Rothamsted (Lawes and Gil- 
bert) was 4!» per cent of the 

yearly rainfall ot 28 inches, in 2222?2S2?5 

the year 1878-79, when 40.2 
inches of rain fell, 61 percent 
of the rain water passed 
through a soil column 60 
inches high, and in the year 
1S77-78, with a rainfall of 18.2 
inches, the percolation was 
but 36 per cent (see p. 47.) 
The general tendency — al- 
though there are exceptional 
cases, such as recorded at 
Hemel Hempstead (Dickinson 
•and Evans) in 1858-59, when, 
with a rainfall of 28 inches, 2 
inches more than the annual 
average, the percolation was 
but one-third of 1 per cent 
instead of the usual 27 per 
cent — is for the small differ- 
ences in the annual rainfall to 
have a rather magnified value 
in the ground-water fluctua- 
tions. 

The yearly variations of the 
rainfall are generally pro- 
gressive over rather long periods (fig. 14), and corresponding broad, irregular vari- 
ations of the ground-water level are produced. On Long Island the shallow wells 
observed by the Brooklyn waterworks show, besides the annual fluctuations, secular 
variations corresponding in general with those of the rainfall (fig. 15). Thus the 
lowest point in both curves is in 1901 and the highest in 1899. Many differences 
are, however, to be noted between the two curves. The annual curve, though it 
may be slightly modified, persistently recurs, whatever the rainfall. Note in this 
connection the regular downward course of the ground water in the latter part of 




Fig. 14. — Residual-mass curves of rainfall for Long Island, 
N.Y., Newark, N. J., and Philadelphia, Pa. (After Spear, 
1904.) These curves show the cumulative excess or defi- 
ciency of the total actual rainfall over the total mean 
rainfall for the periods under consideration, ami as these 
excess or deficiency values are those which determine 
the long-period rise and fall of the ground water they 
indicate the general character of the secular fluctuation 
of the ground water occurring at these points. 



38 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATEB LEVEL IN WELLS. 

1898 and 1903, when the rainfall curve is rising, and the appearance in 1900 of a 
typical yearly curve when the rainfall curve falls rather regularly from the spring 
of 1899 to 1901. 

Similarly, in the Wiener Neustadt ohservations (PI. IX, p. 62) the secular vari- 
ations of the ground-water level broadly follow the variations of the rainfall. 

The observations of Auchincloss a on a well at Bryn Mawr, Pa., which have been 
plotted by Spear b in connection with the yearly rainfall and temperature curves, like- 
wise show pronounced annual and secular fluctuations. Here, however, the secular 
fluctuations of the ground water, while broadly resembling the rainfall variations, 
show some points of difference. Thus, the minimum of the secular curve of the 
ground water is in 1885-86, while the minimum rainfall is in 1887, and the general 
shape of the two curves for 1886-87 and 1888 is by no means parallel. The positions 
of the maxima, however, agree closely, and there is a general falling off in both 
curves from 1889 to 1893-94. Though the extreme rains of the latter part of 1889 tem- 
porarily obliterated the annual curve, it quickly reasserted itself. 

In general it may be said that irregularities in the yearly curve are due to irregu- 
larities in the rainfall occurring in the same year. 

AMOUNT OF ANNUAL AND SECULAR FLUCTUATION. 

The size of the annual fluctuations depends principally upon (1) the percentage of 
rainfall reaching the ground water; (2) the amount of free pore space of the strata in 
the zone affected by the fluctuations, and (3) the relation of the ground-water table 
to the topography of the region involved. 

It is relatively self-evident that, where a single well is considered, the range of the 
yearly fluctuations will vary with the first factor, and that in general the same 
amount of infiltration will produce a greater fluctuation where the pore space is small 
than where it is large. It does not, however, follow that in a given region, in beds 
of the same porosity, the same annual rainfall under the same climatic conditions 
will produce the same results. Observations have shown that whatever the rainfall 
or porosity, provided the latter be reasonably constant in the area under considera- 
tion, the annual fluctuations approach zero at the point of discharge and tend to reg- 
ularly increase in magnitude from that point to the ground-water divide. c Thus at 
Wiener Neustadt (PI. IX, p. 62), near the ground-water discharge into Fisha River, 
where the depth to the ground-water table is about 5 feet, the yearly fluctuation is 3 
to 4 feet, while at St. Agyden station, where the water plane is about 150 feet from 
the surface, the fluctuation is 25 to 30 feet, and the fluctuations in the intervening 
wells are proportional to their position between these two points. On Long Island 
the annual fluctuation 2 miles from the shore, at Millburn (figs. 13, 15), is 22 inches, 
while at the ground-water divide, 8 to 9 miles from the south shore, the fluctuation 
is about 10 feet. A few observations regarding the amount of the yearly fluctuation 
at different points have been collected in the table following. Many of these points 
of observation are located near the points of discharge, and the values as a whole 
are to be regarded as low. 

In records for but a few years it is evidently impossible to separate the annual from 
the secular fluctuations. When, however, the observations cover a considerable 
period, it is possible to obtain a value for the secular fluctuation. This equals the 
total range less the average yearly fluctuation. A few such values are given in the 
table on page 40. 

aAuchincloss, W. S., Waters within the Earth and Laws of Rainflow, Philadelphia, 1897, p. 9. 

h Spear, Walter E., Rept. Commission on Additional Water Supply lor the City of New York, 1904, 
appendix 7, fig. 45, p. 822. 

c The cross section lrom Watford to the Chiltern Hills midway between Colne and Gade rivers, which 
accompanies Clutterbuck's discussion of the " Periodic Alternations of the Chalk Water Level under 
London" (Min.Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol.9, 1850, PL VI), is a most excellent diagrammatic illustration 
of this principle. 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION. 



39 




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FLUCTUATIONS OB' THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 



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42 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO SINGLE SHOWERS. 

In the foregoing consideration of the relation of the rainfall to secular and annual 
fluctuations, the most important factor was clearly the amount of water actually 
contributed to the zone of complete saturation, or the ground water. « In these cases 
the water table rises or falls because the amount of water received is greater or less 
than the. outflow. 

In the consideration of single showers, however, it is found that another factor is 
of as great or even greater importance. Single showers may affect the water level in 
a well in two ways: (1) By transmission of pressure without any actual addition to 
the ground water — indeed, in many cases the elevation of the water in the well is 
accompanied by an actual depression of the ground-water table; (2) by an actual 
contribution to the ground water whereby the level of the water table is raised. 

FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY SHOWERS BY TRANSMITTED PRESSURE WITHOUT ANY 
INCREASE IN THE GROUND WATER. 

King observed at Madison, Wis., b that the water often rose in wells very suddenly 
and sharply during summer rains, when an investigation of the soil showed that it 
was dry beneath the surface covering wet by the showers. Similar occurrences 
were recorded at Lynbrook, N. Y., where in a 2-inch well 14 feet deep every rain — 
during the period of observation, July 17 to September 10 — was recorded and its 
duration and complexity indicated. Many of these fluctuations produce no perma- 
nent deflection of the ground-water curve and the evidence that no water from 
several of these rains reached the ground water is regarded as conclusive (PL VI; 
also note particularly the behavior of the shallow well August 19-21 and the fluctu- 
ations produced by rains of July 20, 22, 30, and August 6; the two successive showers 
of August 6-7 are particularly noteworthy). 

In the case of wells which are not separated from the main water table by imper- 
vious layers and in which the water is not under artesian pressure, this is due largely 
to the hydrostatic transmission of pressure by means of the soil air. When the rain 
strikes the surface it closes the superficial soil pores or interstices and thus confined 
and compresses the air in the soil between the surface and the ground-water table. 
The weight of the rain is thus transmitted to the ground-water table, and the extra 
head so developed raises the water in wells and increases the discharge at the 
ground-water outlets. The effect on the stream flow is very analogous to the increase 
produced by a lowering of the barometric pressure. It is thus possible for a rain to 
produce instantly a change in the water level in wells and an increase in the ground- 
water outflow without contributing a drop to the ground water. This has an impor- 
tant bearing on the calculation of "flood flows" from ground- water-fed streams, for 
it is evident that in this manner a decided rise in the stream may be produced by a 
rain from which there is no direct run-off and which does not reach the ground-water 
table. 

Two other factors may be involved in the production of the change in level during 
rains: (1) An actual elastic compression or plastic deformation of the soil, and (2) a 
change in the capillary conditions. King observed in a shallow well near a railroad 
track that the passage of a freight train caused a quick rise and fall of the water in the 
well (p. 75). Apparently the weight of the train compressed the earth and by decreas- 
ing the pore space caused the water to rise. The weight of the rain might have a 
similar effect. Under this hypothesis the water would rise on the addition of the 
rain and gradually fall on its removal by evaporation. 

aGround water as here used does not include the hygroscopic and capillary water above the water 
table, or zone of complete saturation. For the purpose of this discussion, water is not considered 
"ground water" until it reaches the water table. 

bBull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, pp. 20, 72-73. 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION. 43 

Regarding the second hypothesis it is well known thai changes in the surface con- 
ditions greatly affecl the capillary action <>f the soil. At Purdue University il was 
found thai the addition of a thin layer of soil to the Burface of a lysimeter caused an 
immediate discharge of water." Tins was attributed t<> a change in the capillary 
conditions, and it has been suggested that the wetting of the ground surface would 
produce a similar effect. King, however, observed '' thai a moderate wetting of the 
surface tended t<> increase the upward percolation, and the effect of wetting the sur- 
face at Lynbrook would therefore he to diminish rather than increase the rise due to 
rains which do not contribute to the ground water. 

At the Colorado experiment station lleadden has observed'' that light rains during 
dry periods produce a comparatively great increase in the height of the water plane, 
while in intervals of abundant moisture, when the soil is wet, rains of this character 
do not produce such an increase; moderate rains are here sometimes accompanied 
by temporary depressions of the water plane. These observations may be explained 
on the basis that the soil air is the principal factor and that when the soil is very 
moist there is so little soil air that no effect is possible with slight showers. The 
cause of the temporary depression after moderate rains is not evident unless the con- 
ditions are unfavorable for the transmission of pressure by the soil air, but are such 
that the increased upward capillary action resulting from the moistening of the sur- 
face is sufficient to perceptibly decrease the ground water. 

Where there is an impervious layer between the water-bearing strata and the 
local ground-water surface, and where there is artesian pressure, the added weight 
due to the rainfall in all cases acts directly. In case the rain is uniform over a con- 
siderable area this pressure may be regarded as acting on an elastic body and the 
same character of results is to be expected in both deep and shallow wells. Thus in 
the Lynbrook wells on July 22 and August 25 all wells show a sharp vertical rise 
(PI. VI). On July 22 the rise started in the 14-foot well at 10 p. m., in the 72-foot 
well at 10.25, and in the 504-foot well at 10.34; on August 25 a somewhat similar lag 
is noted, the 14-foot well rising at 4.10 p. m., the 72-foot well at 4.20, and the 504- 
foot well at 4.24. The cause of this lag is not fully apparent. With a direct trans- 
mission of pressure such as the curve indicates no lag is to be expected. It may be 
that in this case the soil is to be regarded as having some of the plastic characters 
shown in other cases. 

On the other hand, when the rainfall is unequally distributed in time and amount 
a plastic deformation may result, due to unequal loading, which will give rise to 
different results in wells of different depths. In the shallow well the zone of influ- 
ence is relatively limited and the condition in this area may be regarded as fairly 
uniform. The result is therefore immediate and abrupt, as in the first case. In the 
deeper wells, however, the increasing zones of influence bring in more factors, which, 
arriving progressively from different sources, tend to produce a more and more 
gradual change. Thus, in the Lynbrook wells there were on August 6-7, 11, and 20 
abrupt changes in the 14-foot well and a more gradual one in the 72- and 504-foot 
wells. 

This plastic deformation in the surficial beds, produced by varying load and the 
response of the w r ater to it, throws some light on the extreme complexity of the 
fluctuation recorded in the wells, for it suggests that variation in load, from whatever 
cause, will produce corresponding fluctuations. The water level in deep wells where 
an artesian head is developed may thus be very sensitive to local conditions, the 
effect of local rainfall and of the yearly fluctuations of the local ground-water level 
being felt to a greater or less degree by transmitted pressure in the deeper zones. 



aSecond Ann. Rept. Indiana Expt. Station, 18S9-90, pp. 32-33. 
b Seventh Ann. Kept. Wisconsin Agrie. Expt. Station, 1890, p. 135. 

cHeadden, William P., A soil study, pt. 4, The ground water: Bull. Colorado Agric. Expt. Station 
No. 72, 1902. 



44 FLUCTUATION'S OF THE WATEE LEVEL IK WELLS. 

FLUCTUATION OF THE GROUND-WATER LEVEL RESULTING FROM SINGLE SHOWERS, BY 

ACTUAL PERCOLATION. 

The fluctuations produced by direct percolation are of a much less abrupt char- 
acter than those just described; indeed, it is usually the case that the water is deliv- 
ered so gradually to the water table that no change is noticed. Only in the shallow 
wells in coarse material can these fluctuations be identified, except in the cases of 
extraordinary rains, when the result is an irregularity of greater or less importance 
on the regular annual ground-water curve. 

On Long Island the shallow wells near the south shore are affected by most of the 
important rains, although part of the fluctuations recorded are of the character just 
described. (See figs. 13, 15.) This is due to the coarseness of the surficial mate- 
rial and to the nearness of the water table to the surface. In the wells in which the 
ground water is farther from the surface the effect of any rain can not be positively 
identified. In the Wiener Neustadt records the effect of single rains is entirely 
obliterated (PL IX), and in long observations of the chalk waters of England the 
general rule, to which, of course, there are exceptions where large underground 
caverns are concerned, is that the water is delivered very gradually to the ground- 
water table. 

PERCENTAGE OF RAINFALL CONTRIBUTED TO THE GROTTND WATER. 

METHODS OF ESTIMATION. 

In connection with this discussion of the fluctuation of the water level it may not 
be inappropriate to take up the allied question, to which reference has been made at 
several points, of the percentage of rain contributed to the ground water. 

Estimates of this character have been made by three methods — (1) by means of 
the lysimeter, (2) by stream discharge, and (3) by changes in the level of the 
ground water. 

ESTIMATION OF PEKCOLATION BY MEANS OF LYSIMETEBS. 

By the lysimeter method the rain water passing through a column of soil in field 
conditions is measured directly. The gage used for this purpose consists of a 
vessel with impervious sides and a pervious bottom, filled with the soil to be tested, 
and buried so that the surface of the soil in the gage is at the same level as the sur- 
rounding ground. The discharge through the pervious bottom of the vessel is col- 
lected by a cone and conducted by a small tube to the measuring gages. In the early 
forms of the apparatus used by Dalton, 1796, and Dickinson, 1835, surface outlets 
were provided to discharge the excess rainfall, but these were abandoned when it 
was found that on the level surface of the gage there was no surface run-off. 

Many observations have been made along this line, and while the results for long 
periods clearly have a greater value than those for short periods, some of these short- 
period values have been included in the table on the following page for the purposes 
of comparison. 

Lysimeter results have been subjected to considerable criticism, and very differing 
views expressed regarding their value. It has been suggested ( 1 ) that the material 
in the gage is not in the natural condition of consolidation, and that, therefore, the 
results are too high; (2) that the underdrainage necessary to collect and carry the 
water from the base of the soil column to the measuring tube introduces an unnatural 
condition whereby the results are too low; (3) that the surface run-off factor is 
surpressed and the results are too high. 



FLUCTUATIONS DTK To RAINFALL AMD EVAPORATION. 



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48 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

The objection regarding consolidation is well taken, though it clearly does not 
apply to the results at Rothamsted, where natural soil columns were used, and where 
very high results were obtained, or to other gages after the first few years, during 
which the soil has settled. In the Hemel Hempstead experiments the percolation 
between 1835 and 1843 was 42.5 per cent of the rainfall, while in the period 1835 to 
1853 it was but 35 per cent, a decrease which is perhaps due in part to the gradual 
compacting of the soil, though it is also affected by the varying rate of percolation, 
for it must be remembered that the amount of percolation depends more on the time 
at which the rain falls and the manner in which it is distributed than on the actual 
amount. 

Regarding the unnatural condition introduced by the method of drainage, it has 
been suggested on the one hand that the lower part of the soil column is thus exposed 
to evaporation, and that not only is there a loss in this manner not accounted for by 
the measuring gage, but that the dry condition of the basal layer would retard the 
percolation to a measureable extent and increase the loss by evaporation from the 
surface of the ground. Ebermeyer has shown, however, that with small lysimeters 
the lower portion of the soil column is damper than normal," and he proposed to 
remedy this by constructing larger gages. These defects are clearly ones of con- 
struction which it is possible to remedy. At Rothamsted essentially' the same results 
were obtained from soil columns 20, 40, and 60 inches high (fig. 12), showing con- 
clusively that in this case the natural conditions were not essentially disturbed. 

Indeed, it is believed that carefully conducted lysimeter observations, extending 
over long periods, such as are represented by the Dickinson and Evans and the 
Lawes and Gilbert experiments, give very important values bearing on this question, 
the Lawes and Gilbert results being particularly important and trustworthy. They 
indicate that in the climatic condition of middle England, with 28 inches of rainfall, 
half of the rainfall is contributed to the ground water through a rather heavy soil 
not covered with vegetation, and half of it evaporated. If the rainfall is greater, the 
percentage increases, if less, it decreases. Had the ground been covered with leaves, 
straw, or similar matter the percolation would have been greater; if covered with 
growing vegetation, less. Lawes and Gilbert estimate, from their observations on 
plant transpiration, that in this region 2 inches per year would represent the plant 
transpiration in the area of downs and waste land, where there was very little vege- 
tation, while with a heavy grass or mangel crop it would amount to 7 inches or more. 
The average for the whole region was estimated at 3 to 4 inches. This would make 
the percolation for soil of this character, in the case of downs and waste land, 43 per 
cent; for the average mid-England district, 39. per cent, and for land covered with 
heavy grass or mangel crop, 25 per cent or less. 

It should be noted in this connection that while the most of these observations, 
including those at Rothamsted, were made in connection with agricultural investi- 
gations, the Hemel Hempstead and Lee Bridge (Greaves) experiments were made 
for engineering purposes. The Hemel Hempstead observations were undertaken by 
a paper manufacturer, dependent on the water power of a spring-fed stream. He 
argued that stream flow depended on the amount of water which percolated through 
the soil; that measurements of this quantity would indicate the stream flow to be 
expected during the following summer. It is stated that he found that the indica- 
tions of the gage during the winter enabled him to calculate the supply of water trom 
the stream during the ensuing season, that he had always found the indication per- 
fectly reliable, 6 and that he was accustomed to regulate the volume of the orders 
accepted for the summer season by the indication of the gage for the preceding 
winter, c Olutterbuck adds, though the relation is clearly more of a qualitative than 

a Reported by JR. H. Scott, Jour. Royal Agnc. Soc , 2d ser., vol. 17, 1881, pp. 66-67. 
f»Min. Proc. Inst. Civil £ng , vol. 2, 1842, p. 158. 
clbid., p. 157, 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION. 4'.) 

a quantitative one, thai the rise in level of the water in the wells in that region is 
found to coincide with the readings <>f the Dickinson gages. 

The lysimeter certainly furnishes a very direct and exact means of determining the 
amount of water contributed to the ground water at any given point. The principal 

objection to it is that the block of soil tested is not necessarily representative of the 
whole area under investigation. 

Somewhat similar experiments, having for their object the determination of the 
evaporation from plants, have been conducted by many agriculturists in this country, 
notably by King, 6 by means of tanks which can be lifted from the ground and 
weighed. This method is not so applicable to the amount of water contributed to 
the ground water as is the lysimeter type used above, for the results are less direct, 
the percolation being inferred from the evaporation generally under more artificial 
conditions than with the lysimeter. 

ESTIMATION OF PERCOLATION FROM THE STREAM DISCHARGE. 

The favorite method of estimating the evaporation of a given drainage basin is to 
subtract the stream discharge expressed in inches of rainfall over the drainage basin 
from the average rainfall. Thus it is assumed that — 

Rainfall — Stream discharge = Evaporation. 

The stream discharge is composed of ( 1) the rain water which flows into the drain- 
age channels without penetrating the soil — this is, strictly speaking, the run-off, but 
as this word is now by common consent used for the whole quantity of water dis- 
charged by the river, this contribution may be somewhat arbitrarily referred to as 
the flood flow; and (2) the water which after a greater or less journey through the earth 
returns to the surface — this may be called the spring or ground- water flow of the river. 
It has been assumed that the ground-water flow of a river is its low-water flow and 
that any excess of this quantity can be regarded as flood flow. This is far from being 
a general fact. As the height of the ground-water table increases the stream dis- 
charge also increases, and it is possible to have high and low waters dependent 
entirely on the fluctuation of the ground-water discharge. In streams which cut the 
ground-water table and are clearly ground-water-fed streams, such as those on Long 
Island, a rise in the ground-water table changes the position of the head of the stream, 
and by thus increasing both the head and the area of discharge greatly increases the 
stream flow. The total range of the ground-water table near the coast is much less 
than near the ground-water divide, and the discharge during periods of high ground- 
water level may therefore be disproportionate to the changes in level recorded by the 
wells near the coast. Because of these great changes in the area of the discharge and 
the relatively free flow of the surface water, it often happens that the fluctuations of 
the stream height in the lower part of the stream are greater than the changes in the 
level in wells in the same region. 

Heavy rains, with no surface run-off, may likewise produce sudden and consider- 
able rises by increasing the spring flow by transmitted pressure in the manner 
described above (p. 42). In the 14-foot well at Lynbrook. (p. 23), besides the sud- 
den rises recorded for every rain, the water four times during the period of observa- 
tion rose above the surface. In the first instance the water, much to the amazement 
of the observer, gushed over the top of the pipe a few minutes after the shower began, 
and, while after the pipe was raised this did not occur again, the records show that 
on several occasions the water rose higher than the ground surface. There appear, 
then, to be great and almost insurmountable difficulties in the way of the satisfactory 
separation of the stream discharge into spring or ground-water flow and flood flow. 

« Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 9, pp. 153, 156. 

bAnn. Repts. Wisconsin Agric. Expt. Station, 1892, pp. 94-100, 1893, pp. 162-159, 1894, pp. 240-280; 
1897, pp. 228-231. 

irr 155—06 4 



50 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 



It is the belief of the writer that in the eastern United States the portion of the total 
stream flow attributed to ground-water contributions is commonly greatly under- 
estimated. 

On Long Island Spear, from a comparison of the hydrographs of several of the 
streams near the south shore with the fluctuation in neighboring wells, has con- 
cluded that of the total stream discharge but 57 per cent is spring or ground-water 
flow. a This is an extremely low value, and from a consideration of the various factors 
involved it is believed that 90 per cent is much nearer the true value. On this basis 
the flood flow is but 3 or 4 per cent of the yearly rainfall. 

In the simple equation, Eainf all— Stream flow = Evaporation, no account is taken of 
the underflow, it being assumed that all the ground water is returned to the stream 
above the point at which the measurement is made, an assumption which is far from 
correct. The result of this is to give to the evaporation a value just as much in excess 
of its true value as there is loss by underflow. Thus on Long Island, where the perco- 
lation is perhaps 60 per cent of the rainfall, the estimate of Spear b gives the total nor- 
mal stream discharge as 33 per cent of the rainfall, and the. estimates of the Brooklyn 
water department are still lower. This, according to the above formula, would give 
a loss by evaporation of 67 per cent, when it is actually about 40 per cent. It may 
be assumed, however, except in regions deeply covered with loose superficial mate- 
rial, such as Long Island, that the loss by underflow is less than the excess by flood 
flow, and that the total stream flow represents a quantity slightly larger than the 
percolation. With thh in mind, some idea of the amount of percolation can be 
obtained from the following values: 

Rainfall and run-off of drainage basins in the United States. 



Drainage basin. 



Watershed of southern Long Island 

Muskingum River, Ohio 

Genesee River, N. Y 

Lake Cochttuate, Mass 

Mystic Lake, Mass 

Croton River, N . Y 

Neshaminy Creek, Pa .'. 

Sudbury River, Mass 

Sudbury River, Mass 



Perkiomen Creek, Pa 

Connecticut River, Conn . . . 

Hudson River, N. Y 

Nashua River, South Branch, Mass. 

Pequannock River, Conn 



Years of 
record. 



1888-1895 
1890-1898 
1863-1900 
1878-1895 
1868-1899 
1884-1899 
1875-1900 
1875-1902 

1884-1899 
1872-1885 
1888-1901 
1897-1902 

1891-1899 



Average 
yearly 
rainfall. 



Inches of 
depth. 

42.56 

39.7 

40.3 

47.1 

44.1 

48.07 

47.6 

46.1 

46.38 

48.0 
43.0 
44.2 
51.32 

44.2 



Average 

yearly 

stream 

flow. 


Percent- 
age: 
Stream 
flow of 
rainfall. 


Inches of 
depth. 




14.0 


33.0 


13.1 


33.0 


14.2 


35.0 


20.3 


43.0 


20.0 


45.3 


22.33 


46.5 


23.1 


48.5 


22.6 


49.0 


22.75 


49.0 


23.6 


49.0 


22.0 


51.0 


23.3 


52.7 


27.56 


53.7 


26.8 


60.6 



Authority. 



Spear. 
Rafter. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 
Freeman. 
Rafter. 

Do. 

Metropolitan water- 
works. 

Rafter. 

Do. 

Do. 
Metropolitan water- 
works. 

Rafter. 



In this table the large loss by underflow in the Muskingum and Genesee drainage 
basins is evident. 

ESTIMATION OF PERCOLATION FROM CHANGES IN LEVEL OP THE GROUND- WATER TABLE. 

The broader and more important fluctuations of the ground-water table are clearly 
due to the infiltration of water, and attempts have been made repeatedly to estimate 



nRept. New York City Commission on Additional Water Supply, 1904, p. 829. 
b Ibid., p. 795. 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION. 51 

the aim mm of infiltration by the rise in the ground water. After ha\ ing determined 
the available pore space, which is by do means a simple matter, it appears very easy 
t<» calculate the amount of water which will cause the water Level to rise a few inches 
or a few feet. The method is an attractive one, with an appearance of exactness and 
simplicity, and bas often been tried. Theresults have very little meaning, however, 

for the very important reason that the same rainfall under the same climatic condi- 
tions will produce very different rises in material of the same porosity; for, as pointed 

out previously (p. 38), the amplitude of the fluctuation increases with the distance 
from the ground-water discharge. Thus, with material of the same porosity, an 
annual rainfall of 25 inches produces at Wiener Neustadl a fluctuation in one well of 
1 foot, and in another a fluctuation of 25 feet (PI. IX). It i.s evident that a calcu- 
lation of infiltration based on the rise of water produced in well No. 1, will give very 
different values from that of No. 2. and yet it may he confidently asserted that the 
same amount of percolation is received in both. Similarly, in the chalk region of 
England, the fluctuation in the same region ranges from a few inches to 50 or 100 
feet. The impossibility of accurately calculating the amount of percolation from the 
rise of the ground-water table is evident. 

REFERENCES RELATING TO WELL FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION. 

The bibliography relating to fluctuations of water in wells due to rainfall is natu- 
rally very extensive, and an attempt has been made to collect a few only of these 
titles, important either for their general bearing or their special reference to the 
United States: 

Acchincloss, W. S. Waters within the Earth and Laws of Rainflow, Philadelphia, 1897. 

Gives record of fluctuations in well at Bryn Mawr, Pa., 1886-1895, showing annual and secular 
fluctuations. 
Barbour, Erwin Hinckley. Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper No. 29, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1899, p. 28; 
Nebraska Geol. Survey, Kept, of State Geologist, vol. 1, 1903, p. 106. 

States that wells in Nebraska show an annual fluctuation independent of the rainfall, with the 
maximum occurring in February. 
Clctterbuck, James. Observations on the periodic drainage and replenishment of the sub- 
terraneous reservoir in the chalk basin of London: Mill. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. [vol. 2], 1842, 
pp. 155-165; 184::, pp. 156-159. 

Oh the periodic alternations and progressive permanent depression of the chalk-water level 

under London: Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 9, 1850, pp. 151-180, PI. VI. 
Emery, Frank E. Notes on fluctuations in height of water in an unused well: Eighth Ann. Rept. 
New York Agric. Expt. Station for 1889, 1890, pp. 374-375, fig. 

Records monthly observations from December, 1886, to December, ISN'.i, on a 40-foot well at 
Geneva, N. Y.. which shows a single yearly period independent of the rainfall. 
Poktier, Samuel. A preliminary report on seepage water and the underflow of rivers: Bull. Utah 
Expt. Station No 38, 1895. 

On p. 30, under heading "Effect of subsurface temperature on rate of flow," are given dis- 
charge, temperature, and rainfall at Denver Water Company's plant at Cherry Creek, from 1888 to 
1891. This is an infiltration gallery in fine sand 15 feet below the surface, and the discharge 
shows a rather regular yearly fluctuation with a minimum in February-March and a maximum, 
normally, in August-November. This fluctuation is ascribed by Fortier to changes in soil tem- 
perature. It should be pointed out, however, that, while the annual changes in soil temperature 
do affect the rate of flow (see p. 59), the yearly maximum is independent of this fluctuation and 
the agreement here is merely a coincidence. 
Fkeund, Adolph (secretary). Bericht des Ausschusses fur die Wasserversorgung Wiens, Osterreich- 
ischen Ingenieur- und Architekten-Verein, 1895. 
PI. Y, Graphische Darstellung der Wasserstsinde im Steinfelde, 1883-1888. 
Gerhardt, P. I. Handbuch der Ingenieurwissenschaften, vol. 3, Der Wasserbau, i>t. 1,1892, pp. 46-51. 
Under heading " Schwankungen des Grundwas ers," gives a summary based largely on the 
reports of Soyka. 
Headden, Wilhelm P. A soil study, pt. 4, The ground water: Bull. Colorado Agric. Expt. station 
No. 72, 1902. 
Gives data regarding effect of single showers. 
KING, Franklin II. Fluctuations in level and rate of movement of ground water: Bull. D. S. 
Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, pp. 72-74. 
Discusses instantaneous percolation after rains. 



52 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

King, Franklin H. Principles and conditions of the movement of ground water: Nineteenth 
Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 2, 1899, pp. 100-106. 

Discusses "Elevation of ground-water surface due to precipitation and percolation," largely 
from standpoint of porosity. 
Liznak, Josef. Ueber die periodische Anderung des Grundwasserstandes, ein Beitrag zur Quellen- 

theorie: Gsea, vol. 17, 1881, p. 330; Meteorol. Zeitschr., Wien, vol. 17, 1882, pp. 368-371. 
Luegeb, Otto. Die Schwankungen des Grundwassers: Geea, vol. 24, 1888, p. 630. 
Michigan State Board of Health. Annual reports, 1878-1903. 

Contain monthly observations of water level at many points in Michigan. 
Soyka, Isidor. Experimentelles zur Theorie des Grundwasserschwankungen: Vierteljahrsschrift 
fiir off. Gesundheitspflege, vol. 4, 1885, p. 592. 

Der Boden (Handbuch des Hygiene und der Gewerbekrankheiten, vol. 2, pt. 3), Leipzig, 

1887, pp. 251-351. 
Contains much of the material incorporated in the following report. 
Die Schwankungen des Grundwassers mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung der mitteleuropa- 



ischen Verhaltnisse: Penck's Geographische Abhandlungen, vol. 2, pt. 3, Wien, 1888. 
Spear, Walter E. Long Island sources: Rept. New York City Commission on Additional Water 

Supply, appendix 7, 1904, pp. 816-826. 
Discusses fluctuation in elevation of ground-water surface. 
Todd, James E. Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper No. 34, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1900, p. 29. 

The normal yearly maximum is here tentatively referred to the melting of snows or floods. 
Tribus, L. L. Trans. Am. Soc. Civil Eng., vol. 31, 1894, pp. 170, 391-395. 

Reports (p. 170) that in driven wells in New Jersey, 50 feet deep, the effect of rain was rarely 

felt in less than thirty hours; gives curve (pp. 391-395) showing fluctuation of water level in 50-foot 

well at Plainfleld, N. J., waterworks, 1891-1894. This shows normal annual curves slightly affected 

by pumping. 
Woldrich, Johann Nepomuk. Ueber den Einfluss der atmospharischen Niederschlage auf das 

Grundwasser: Zeitschr. Meteorol., Wien, vol. 4, 1869, pp. 273-279. 
: — Ueber die Beziehungen der atmospharischen Niederschlage zum Fluss- und Grundwasser- 

stand: Mitt. d. Techn. Klubs zu Salzburg, pt. 1, 1869. 

FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO BAROMETRIC CHANGES. 

CHARACTER AND CAUSE. 

Changes in air pressure have been observed to affect wells in two ways; in some 
there is an inflow and outflow of air, and in others a rising and lowering of the water 
level. a The rise or outflow occurs with a falling barometer, and the depression or 
inflow with a rising barometer. In the case of flowing wells, when the external air 
pressure decreases, the air witbin the earth expands, and, as the escape through the 
soil is greatly retarded by friction and as the well offers a free escape, it finds relief 
through the well tubing. The power of this blast evidently depends on the area 
tributary to the well, the loss by friction, and the rate of lowering of the outside 
pressure. On the other hand, with a rising barometer the external air flows into the 
pipe to supply the volume lost by the compression of the soil air or earth air. If 
water is interposed between this included air and the well, the well becomes a rough 
differential-pressure gage in which the maximum change possible is about 12 inches 
of water for each mercurial inch of variation in the barometric pressure. 

Where there- is no soil air suitably confined to produce the result just described, 
the air and other gases in the water so increase its compressibility that a small, 
though measurable result may be produced by the direct compression and expansion 
of the water. In the latter case the depth of water involved is an important factor, 
and it is probably for this reason that on Long Island, where the earth air occurs 
only in the porous surficial soil, from which it is relatively free to escape, in the 
wells at Lynbrook fluctuations due to barometric changes are clearly noticeable only 
in the 504-foot well, and these are relatively small. An examination of PI. VI shows 
that there are no indications of barometric influence on the curves from the 72-foot 
well, but that in the 504-foot well there is a striking resemblance. The similarity is, 
however, in some places due in part to other causes. Thus the elevations of the water 
on July 18-19, August 5, and September 16, while closely following the barometric 



a See in this connection Nineteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 2, 1899, figs. 3, 4, 5; Water- 
Sup, and Irr. Paper No. 67, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1902, fig. 39, p. 73. 



FLUCTUATIONS DTK TO BAROMETRIC CHANGES. 58 

curve, are partly due to rainfall. This is indicated by the fact that somewhat similar 
abrupt barometric depressions on July 26, August 20, and September^ 5, when there 
were no important rains, did no1 produce similar elevations of the water in the well. 

There is a further point of resemblance and dissimilarity between the curve for the 
504-foot well and the barometric curve. The well curve shows a very marked semi- 
diurnal fluctuation, the two parts of which are generally of about the same value, 
although they sometimes merge into a pronounced diurnal wave, as <>n August I, 2, 

and :i. In the barometric curve, although there is a tendency toward a semidiurnal 
well wave, it is nowhere well marked. The semidiurnal well wave is clearly not tidal. 
Its resemblance to the barometer curve is, however, sufficiently close to lead to the 
belief that it is largely barometric, but modified by some other element, perhaps the 
diurnal temperature wave which shows in the 14- and 72-foot wells (pp. 24-25). 

REFERENCES RELATING TO WELL FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO BAROMETRIC CHANGES. 

BLOWING WELLS. 

Barbour, Erwin Hinck ley. [Blowing wells in Nebraska] : Water-Snp. and Irr. Paper No. 29, V. S. 

Geol. Survey, 1889, pp. 78-82; Nebraska Geol. Survey, Rept. of State Geologist, vol. 1, 1903, pp. 93-97. 
Karri. ey, T. On the blowing wells near North Allerton: Proc. Yorkshire Geol. and Polyt. Soc., n.s., 

vol. 7, pt. 3, 1880, pp. 409-421, PI. VII. 
Harris, Gilrert Dennison. [Blowing wells in Rapides Parish, La.]: Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper 

No. 101, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1904, pp. 60-61; Louisiana Geol. Survey, Bull. No. 1, 190, r >, pp. 59-60. 
Lane, Alfred C. Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper No. 30, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1899, pp. 55-56. 

Records shallow blowing well in Michigan. 
Veatch, A. C. Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 44, 1906, p. 74. 

Records reported occurrence of blowing wells on Long Island, New York. 

CHANGES IN WATER LEVEL. 

Atwell, Joseph. Conjectures on the nature of intermitting and reciprocating springs: Trans. Phil. 
Soc. London, No. 424, vol. 37, 1732, p. 301; Trans. Phil. Soc. London from 1665-1800 (abridged), vol. 
7, 1809, pp. 544-550. 

Describes irregular fluctuations of short interval in springs at Brixam, near Torbay, in Devon- 
shire called "Lay well." These, he supposes, are produced by the action of natural siphons. 
Perhaps they are barometric fluctuations. 

Denizet. Sources sujettees a des variations qui paraissent liees a l'6tat du barometre: Comptes 
rendus, vol. 7, 1839, p. 799. 

Reports that springs at Voize are affected by changes in barometric pressure, and that the dis- 
charge is directly related to the pressure, instead of inversely, as has been proved by more recent 
work. 

Gough, John. Observations on the ebbing and flowing well at Giggleswick, in the West Riding of 
Yorkshire, with a theory of reciprocating fountains: Jour. Nat. Phil. Chem. Arts, ser. 2, vol. 35, 
1813, pp. 178-193; Mem. Phil. Soc. Manchester, n. s., vol. 2, 1813, pp. 354-363. 

The water level in this well fluctuates irregularly at short intervals, and Mr. Gough suggests 
that the fluctuations are produced by the obstruction resulting from the natural accumulation 
of air bubbles in the outlet and the relief resulting from their irregular escape. He cities the irreg- 
gular fluctuations of the Weeding well in Derbyshire and the Lay well near Torbay, as proving 
that the prevailing idea of the production of these phenomena by natural siphons is erroneous. 
He concludes, very correctly, that too little is known of the fountain of Jupiter in Dodona and 
Pliny's well in Coruo to judge of the true cause of the fluctuations mentioned by Pliny. 

King, Franklin H. [Influence of barometric changes on discharge and water level in wells and 
springs at Madison and Whitewater, Wis.]: Bull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, pp. 44-53; 
Nineteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 2, 1899, pp. 73-77. 

Latham, Baldwin. On the influence of barometric pressure on the discharge of water from springs: 
Brit. Assoc. Rept. for 1881, 1882, p. 614; Brit. Assoc. Rept. for 1883, 1884, pp. 495-496. 

The fluctuation of the Croydon Bourne, due to barometric pressure, on one occasion exceeded 
half a million gallons per day. Observations in deep wells are also recorded, showing that fluctu- 
ations are inversely related to the pressure. The fluctuations are attributed to the expansion and 
contraction of the air and gases in the water. 

Knightley, T. E. Ebbing and flowing wells [in Derbyshire, England]: Geol. Mag., n. a., decade 4, 
vol. 5, 1898, pp. 333-334. 

Suggests that irregularities in flow are due to cavernous limestone, which, by means of 
natural siphons, gives rise to "intermittent spring phenomena." The possibility of these fluctu- 
ations being due to barometric changes is not considered. 



54 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATEE LEVEL IN WELLS. 

Lueger, Otto. Einfluss der Atmosphiirendruckes auf die Ergiebigkeit von Brunnen und Quellen: 

Centralblatt d. Bauverwaltung, 1882, p. 8. 
Milne, John. Seismology. London, 1898, p. 243. 

Reports two sinkings and two risings of about 5 millimeters in a shallow well near Tokio. The 
sinkings took place between 2 and 6 p. m. and 2 and 5 a. m. Note: These fluctuations suggest the 
diurnal barometric wave, but they can be referred to it only if the time given is taken to mean 
the time at which the water commenced to sink and not the time of the low-water stage. 
Oliver, Dr. William. Of a well that ebbs and flows . . . : Trans. Phil. Soc. London, No. 204, vol. 
17, 1693, p. 908; Trans. Phil. Soc. London from 1665-1800 (abridged), vol. 3, 1809. pp. 585-586. 

Describes well near Torbay called " Lay well," that ebbs and flows from 16 to 20 times per hour. 
See Atwell, above, and discussion of minor periodic fluctuations on p. 75. 
Pliny the Younger (Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus). Epistolae, lib. 4, epist. ult. 

In his letter to Licinius Pliny describes the fluctuations in the discharge of a spring near his 
villa in Como, Italy, which he states ebbs and flows thrice a day. He suggests that the fluctua- 
tions may be due to " the obstruction of air," tidal action, or some secret and unknown contriv- 
ance in the nature of a valve. Pliny the elder, in his Historia Naturalis, lib. 2, cap. 106, refers to 
the same spring, but states that it ebbs and Hows every hour — a statement which is verified by 
Catanseus, the learned commentator on the Epistles. From the meager and contradictory data 
given it is unsafe to venture a decided opinion on the cause of these fluctuations, but they may 
be tentatively regarded as barometric. 
Roberts, Isaac. On . .- . the variation in atmospheric pressure . . . causing oscillations in 
the underground water in porous strata: Rept. Brit. Assoc, for 1883, p. 405. 
States that autographic records from a well at Maghill, near Liverpool, show such fluctuations. 
Slighter, Charles S. Water-Sup. andlrr. Paper No. 67, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1902, pp. 71-72. 

Refers to reports of Latham, King, and Lueger. 
Todd, James E. Bull. Geol. Survey, South Dakota, No. 2, 1898, p. 116; Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper No. 
34, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1900, p. 29. 
Reports that well discharge varies inversely with barometic pressure. 

FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO TEMPERATURE CHANGES. 

OBSERVATIONS AT MADISON, WIS.— FLUCTUATIONS VARYING DIRECTLY WITH THE TEM- 
PERATURE. 

Iii 1888 King observed in certain shallow wells at Madison, Wis., that the water 
regularly for a portion of the summer months stood higher in the morning than at 
night, a Further observations during the period 1888 to 1892 showed that there was . 
in many wells a diurnal wave, distinctly marked during the summer and dying out 
in winter, which was clearly not barometric in character, and was not produced 
by the unequal plant transpiration during the day and night. Suspecting that these 
changes were intimately related to temperature, King tried the following experiment: 

A galvanized-iron cylinder, 6 feet deep and 30 inches in diameter, provided with a bottom, and 
water-tight, was filled with soil, standing its full height above the ground in the open field. In the 
center of this cylinder and extending to the bottom a column of 5-inch drain tile was placed and the 
soil filled in about it and packed as thoroughly as practicable. Water was poured into the cavity 
formed by the tile until it was full, and allowed to percolate into the soil so as to saturate it and leave 
the water standing nearly a foot deep in the well. When the water in this artificial well had become 
nearly stationary one of the self-registering instruments was placed upon it.?' In order to avoid any 
complications due to percolation, the apparatus was provided with a cover which could be put on in 
times of rain and removed again during fair weather. The first records showed a small diurnal oscil- 
lation, and as the season advanced these increased in amplitude until finally the water rose in the 
well during the day of July 8,1.8 inches and fell during the following night 1.84 inches. After these 
diurnal oscillations had become so pronounced and so constant, a series of thermometers were intro- 
duced into the side of the cylinder, extending to different distances from the surface, and a record^ 
kept of the changes in the soil temperature; and the result of these observations was to show that the 
turning points in the water curve fell exactly upon the turning points of the temperature of the soil 
in the cylinder. When this fact was ascertained, to show whether the correspondence in the time of 
the two curves was due to a diurnal cause, other than temperature, which had its turning points so 
related to those of the temperature as to cause the two to accidentally fall together, cold water was 

aKing, Franklin H., Observations and experiments on the fluctuations in the level and rate of 
movement of ground water on the Wisconsin Agricultural" Experiment Station Farm and at White- 
water, Wis.: Bull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892; also Ann. Repts, Wisconsin Agric. Expt. Station, 
1889-1893. 

b For a figure of this apparatus see Bull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5. 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO TEMPERATURE CHANGES. . r )5 

broughl from the well and, with a spray pump, applied to the Burface ol the cylinder nil around. 
ill. water was applied on a hot sunny day, jnsi after dinner, « hen the water was rising In the well, 
and the resull was an immediate change in the curve, the water beginning to Fall In the well. The 
water was then turned off, and the result of i his change was to stop the fall of the water in the well, 
us shown by a change in the direction of the curve. 

This led to tlic conclusion thai there was a very positive connection between the 
changes in the soil temperature and changes in the level of the water in the wells, 
and that the fluctuation varied directly with the temperature; that is, the water in 
the wells rose with increasing temperature ami fell when the temperature lowered. 
A specially constructed self-recording soil thermometer showed that at a depth of 
IS inches the minimum temperature occurred at noon, ami the the maximum a little 
after midnight. It was therefore argued that at a depth of 3 feet, or the level at 
which the wells were fluctuating, the maximum and minimum temperature would 
occur still later, and that the high water which occurred in the wells at <S o'clock in 
the morning was due to the maximum temperature falling at that time at that de.pt h. 
The autographic records, moreover, show that the well curves have the same charac- 
teristic as the temperature curve — there is in both a comparatively sudden rise anil a 
long fall. King at first believed that these fluctuations were produced by a variation 
in the capillary action of the soil resulting from the change in temperature/' but 
afterwards concluded that the fluctuations were due not so much to "a change in the 
viscosity of the ground water as to variations in pressure due to the expansion and 
contraction of the gas confined in the soil within and above the water."'' 

Changes in capillary attraction and surface tension, due to temperature changes, 
are quite competent to produce fluctuations which are related to the temperature in 
the way observed. A rise in temperature, by decreasing the capillary attraction, 
causes some of the capillary water above the water table to be added to the zone of 
complete saturation, and so increases the level of the water in wells. Conversely, a 
decrease of temperature, by increasing the surface tension and capillary attraction, 
causes water to be transferred from the ground water to the partially saturated zone 
above it, and so lowers the water in wells. There is, then, a continual interchange, 
a flux and reflux, between the ground water and the water in the partially saturated 
zone above it. The amount of water involved in this change is probably small, but, 
because of the very small amount of unoccupied pore space existing immediately above 
the zone of saturation, a very slight shifting of water can produce a fluctuation of sev- 
eral inches in the surface of the zone of saturation or the water level in a well. This 
effect is marked only when the bottom of the well (supposing the well tube to be 
impervious) is very near the top of the ground-water table; it is not shown in deep 
wells because, while the position of the ground-water table is constantly changing in 
this way, there is, so far as deeper points are concerned, no important change in 
pressure. The total pressure at a given point below the ground-water table is essen- 
tially the same whether the water involved is in the saturated zone or 2 or 3 inches 
above it in an almost saturated layer. To this, more than to the fact that the vari- 
ations in soil temperature at a given depth are less in winter than in summer, is due 
the fact that these fluctuations at Madison, \Yis., were not shown by the twice-daily 
observations, made morning and evening between 1888 and 1892, until past or near 
the middle of July (when the water was nearing its yearly minimum), and from that 
time increased toward a maximum, occurring sometime in August (probably corre- 
sponding with the ground- water minimum), and then died away until the middle 
of October, when they became inconspicuous. It likewise explains the fact that not 
all the wells observed, though they were in a limited area, show these fluctuations, 
and why they begin at different times in adjacent wells of different depths. 

« Bull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, pp. <i.-5, (17. 

'-Hull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, p. 7.'. Nineteenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 2, 
1899, pp. 75, 77. 



56 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

To this relation are due the apparently anomalous phenomena observed in "well 
No. 5," which King records as follows: 

The ground-water level had fallen until well 5 was likely to become dry. In order not to lose the 
records it was deepened by boring a hole in the center and curbing it with sections of 5-inch drain 
tile in the manner represented in the figure, a which shows the two water surfaces whose fluctuations 
are recorded in fig. 16. The original well, having an inside diameter of 1 foot and a depth of 5.5 feet, 
was bricked up to within 2 feet of the surface and then finished with a section of sewer pipe, as 
shown in the cut,a where the character and arrangement of the soil through which the well pene- 
trated may also be seen. & 

The facts are, strange as it does appear, that under these conditons and in such close juxtaposition, 
oscillations so unlike in their character as the two under consideration were produced simultaneously. 
The level of the water in the outer well oscillated so as to stand in the morning from 0.1 to 0.3 inch 
above the level of the water in the inner one, and at night from 0.5 inch to 1.2 inches below that 
surface, and these differences were maintained with only the unglazed section of drain tile separating 
them. The large oscillations in this well became very pronounced and constant only a short time 
before it became dry, and the inner well did not take up the marked changes in level after the water 
fell below the bottom of the original well. No other well of this series, although constructed in the 
same manner, showed such marked oscillations. 

The second suggestion, that the fluctuations are produced by the expansion and 
contraction of the air due to temperature changes, is not supported by the observed 
facts. The daily temperature fluctuation at the depths observed amounts to but a 
fraction of a degree, and the change in volume or vapor tension of the air resulting 
from this is quite incompetent to produce the fluctuations observed. Moreover, this 
involves an elevation in the well due to pressure of much the same character as that 
producing the fluctuations due to barometric changes. The effects of such pressure 
changes are felt not only at the surface of the zone of complete saturation, or the 
water table, but are transmitted for many feet below it, and in the case of well No. 5, 
described above, the fluctuations under such conditions would be shown in both 
wells, though in the deep one the amplitude would be slightly less. 

On the whole there seems to be no other alternative than to regard these Madison 
fluctuations as the result of variations in the capillary attraction and surface tension, 
of the water above the zone of complete saturation, produced by variations in 
temperature. 

In fluctuations of this character a limiting factor is clearly the range of tempera- 
ture, which decreases very rapidly with depth, so that at a relatively shallow depth, 
much less than the limit of no annual change, the fluctuations become impercepti- 
ble. The amplitude will, moreover, be affected by the size of the pore spaces, being 
greater in fine than in coarse material. 

OBSERVATIONS AT LYNBROOK, N. Y.— FLUCTUATIONS INVERSELY RELATED TO 

TEMPERATURE. 

Two of the wells at Lynbrook show pronounced fluctuations which are clearly due 
to temperature changes. These fluctuations, while they resemble those observed at 
Madison in the fact that the water is higher in the morning than at night, differ 
from them in two important respects. There is no connection between their occur- 
rence and the relation of the ground-water table to the bottom of the well; they are 
best developed in a 2-inch well, 14 feet deep, whose bottom is about 13.75 feet below 
the ground- water level; they are distinctly developed in a well 72 feet deep, and are 
believed to form one of the elements in a compound curve obtained from the 504- 
foot well (PI. VI, p. 24). There is also the further difference that, while these are 
clearly temperature fluctuations, they are inversely related to the temperature — that 
is, the water is high when the temperature is low. Avoiding all discussion of the 

a Omitted in this report. 

6 The stratification, as shown in the original cut, is as follows: 

Section of well at Madison, Wis., which furnished fluctuations shown in fig. 16. Feet. 

1 . Loam 0.6 

2. Clay 3.0 

3. Sand 9 

4. Clay... 3 

5. Sand 2.0 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO TEMPERATURE CHANGES. 



57 



question of la 
conclusively 



tins i 

I U>\\ II 



ilation 
b 



the 3 ~ ^ 
shape of the curves. Thechar- 
acteristic of the air temperature g- — j? 
curve is a quick rise and slower •< g § 
fall; well fluctuations directly -r = ~ 
related to the temperature, as 3 -' 5 
those at Madison, therefore s. 
must show a quick rise and a g !L s 
slower fall, but in the Lyn- 2.^ g. 
brook wells there is a quick ~ ^ § 
fall and slower rise (see PI. VI, <£ | | 
Aug. 1-3). These evidently 3, * f. 
belong in quite a different class g, g a 
from the temperature fluctua- 
tions observed at Madison, and 
involve quite a different rela- 
tion between the soil tempera- 
ture and the ground water. 

The soil is a very poor trans- 
mitter of heat, and there is not 
only a very rapid diminution 
of the temperature range with 
depth, but a very considerable 
time lag. Swezey's observa- 
tions « at Lincoln, Nebr., for a 
period of fourteen years show 
that while in winter the maxi- 
mum temperature occurs in the 
air at about the middle of the 
afternoon, at a depth of 3 to 6 
inches it occurs in the evening, 
and at 1 foot it is delayed until 
the following morning; below 
1 foot it is scarcely appreciable. 
In summer the daily range is 
considerably greater at all 
depths, the changes are appre- 
ciable to a depth of at least 2 
feet, and are retarded to about 
the same extent as in winter. 

At Bronx Park, New York 
City, the record obtained by 
MacDougal >> with a Hallock 
thermograph showed that at 1 
foot below the surface the max- 
imum daily temperature oc- 
curred between 8 and lip. m., 
and the minimum between 8 

nSwezey, G. D., Soil temperature 
at Lincoln, Nebr., 1888 to 1902: Six- 
teenth Ann. Kept. Nebraska Agrie. 
Expt. Station for 1902, 1903, pp. 95-129; 
Expt. Station Record, vol. 15, 1901, 
pp. 4(30-461. 

t> MacDougal, Daniel Trembly, Soil 
temperatures and vegetation; Month- 
ly Weather Review, vol. 31, August, 
1903, pp. 375-379. 




58 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THF WATEE LEVEL IN WELLS. 



and the maximum daily range was but 2° C. (3.6° F.), which was 

A o a a a," reached on but two occa- 
sions. The' total annual 
variation from June 9, 1902, 
to May 31, 1903, was 16.2° 0. 
(29.4° F.). Similar results 
have been obtained by Cal- 
lender at Montreal, a 

As a result of this slow 
transmission of tempera- 
ture, the temperature at the 
ground-water outlet may be 
at its maximum while a 
short distance away; where 
the water table is but a foot 
or two from the surface, the 
ground temperature may be 
at its minimum. Now, the 
rate of flow of water is 
greatly affected by temper- 
ature. Poiseuille found 
that water at a tempera- 
ture of 45° C. flowed 2.5 
times as fast under other- 
wise like conditions as 
water at 5° 0. b This gives 
rise to the phenomena 
shown in fig. 17. 

There is thus produced a 
distinct and periodic fluc- 
tuation of the ground 
water, which is great near 
the ground-water outlet 
and decreases rapidly in 
amplitude as the "distance 
from the outcrop increases. 
The fluctuation is produced 
03 £ " a <u by an actual shifting of the 
o 5 ® o | a> water whereby the pressure 
conditions are constantly 
changed, and in this re- 
spect it differs from the 
Madison fluctuations (p. 
54). It is this change in 
pressure that causes these 
fluctuations to show in the 
other wells, even to a depth 
of 500 feet. The same phe- 
nomenon of response to 
loading and relief from 
load is exhibited in some 
of the rainfall fluctuations 
described above (p. 42) and in the sympathetic tidal fluctuations (p. 65) . 




f-Callender, Hugh L., Proc. and Trans. Royal Soc. Canada for 1895, 2d ser., vol. 1, sec. 3, p. 79, fig. 4. 
b Quoted by King, Nineteenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 2, 1899, p. 82; see also Carpenter, 
L. C, Seepage and return waters from irrigation: Bull. Colorado Agric. Expt. Station No. 33, 1896, 
pp. 42-44. 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO TEMPERATURE CHANGES. 59 

These data suggesl thai the annua] changes of the soil temperature may proauce a 
Bomewhat analogous effect, the warm summer temperature assisting in the depletion 
or lowering of the water near the ground-water outlets, and the cold winter tempera- 
ture, by rendering the Mater more viscous, retarding the outflow. In one respect 
the result would be in the same direction as the annual ground-water fluctuations, 
ami this is perhaps to be considered one <>f the minor factors. It would also tend to 
make the time of occurrence of the maximum and minimum of the yearly fluctua- 
tion earlier near the ground-water outlets than on the divides — or just the condi- 
tion observed on Long Island (p. 35). 

OBSERVATIONS AT SHERLOCK, KANS. 

Diurnal fluctuations due to temperature changes were observed by Mr. Henry C. 
Wolff, at Sherlock, Kans., in 1U04, while working under the direction of Prof. C. S. 
Sliehter." Mr. Wolff reports that the wells are low in the evening and high in the 
morning, and that there is no important time lag between wells where the water line 
is ti inches below the surface and those where it is :; feet below. In a few wells 
where the water level was about .'! feet from the surface, which were observed long 
enough to show the shape of the curve, the characteristics of the Madison curve are 
shown — that is, there is a long fall and sudden rise. 

DIURNAL FLUCTUATIONS OF CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER, COLORADO. 

Carpenter has observed very regular diurnal changes in the height of Cache la 
Poudre River near Fort Collins, Colo.'' Here the high water occurs at from 4 to 6 
a. m., the low water at 8 p. m., and the extreme range of the daily change in river 
level noted was about 1 foot. The curves show the same characteristics as those 
observed by Wolff at Sherlock, Kans. ; there is a long fall and a sudden rise, and 
they are therefore directly related to the temperature. Carpenter concludes that 
these fluctuations are due to differences in daily melting in the snow fields, and that 
the occurrence of the high water in the morning is due to the distance from the snow 
fields. While this is a very possible explanation, and in the writer's opinion it is 
probably the correct one, it is desirable to have the matter checked by other obser- 
vations. If the fluctuations are purely due to daily waves moving down the river, 
due to melting snow, gages at other points should show the maximum and minimum 
at different times; if the fluctuations are due to variation in rate of ground-water 
discharge and are analogous to those described above, the time will lie the same at 
different points. 

REFERENCES RELATING TO FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY TEMPERATURE CHANGES. 

Besides the references given above to the discussions of King, Sliehter, and Wolff, 
it is desirable to add here the early reference of Pliny to fluctuating wells belonging 
to this class: 

Puny the Elder (Caius Plinius Secundus). Historia Naturalis, lib. 2, cap. 106 [Pliny's Natural 
History, Bostock and Riley's translation, Bohn's Libraries, vol. 1, 1887, pp. 133-134]. 

" In the island of Tenedos there is a spring which, after the summer solstice, is full of water 
from the third hour of the night to the sixth." "The fountain of Jupiter in Dodona . . . 
always becomes dry at noon, from which circumstance it is called ' The Loiterer.' It then 
increases and becomes full at midnight, after which it again visibly decreases." Hardouin notes 
that there-is a similar kind of fountain in Provence called "Collis Martiensis." These fluctua- 
tions clearly belong to the class produced by temperature changes. 

FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY RIVERS. 

Rivers may produce fluctuations of the water level in wells in three ways: (1) By 
changing the height of the ground- water discharge; (2) by seepage or actual con- 
tributions to the ground water, and (3) by transmitted pressure or plastic deformation. 

"The underflow of the Arkansas Valley in western Kansas: Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper No. 153, U. S. 
Geol. Survey. 
''Carpenter, L. G., Bull. Colorado Agric. Kxpt. Station No. 55, 1901, figs. 2-6. 



GO 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 



FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY CHANGES IN RATE OF GROUND-WATER DISCHARGE. 

In regions where the sides of the channels are pervious and the ground water con- 
tributes to the stream flow, the water table, after a period of long drought, slopes 
regularly down to the water surface. If the stream rises through causes not asso- 
ciated with local ground-water conditions, the ground-water table is found likewise 
to rise to a greater or less extent. This is accomplished in part by an outflow from 
the river and in part by the accumulation of the ground-water flow, which can not 
so readily escape under the new conditions as under the old. If this new level were 
permanently maintained a complete readjustment would take place, and a line 
roughly parallel to the initial position of the ground-water table would be developed; 
and if there were no new outlets developed by this elevation of the ground water, 
wells at all distances would be similarly affected. Actually, however, the river is con- 
stantly changing; a series of waves of unequal height and duration, representing the 
high and low waters, are constantly traveling down every stream, and no stage lasts 
long enough for the establishment of a perfectly graded ground-water table, even 
were there no other factors involved. The result of this unceasing change is that 
the fluctuations are greatest near the river and become imperceptible at very short 
distances. This is due not only to the rapidity of the fluctuations in the river, but 
to the slow rate of outflow and accumulation. 

Observations made by Hess « along Aller River, near Celle, Germany, in 1866, give 
the values expressed in the table below: 

Table showing lag of high- and loiv-water stages in wells along Aller River, behind high- and 

low-water stages in the river. 





Distance 
from 
river. 


High water, Feb.- 
Mar., 1866. 


Low water, Mar. 7, 
1866. 


High water, Apr. 1, 
1866. 


Test well No.— 


High wa- 
ter in 
well be- 
hind high 
water in 
river. 


Rate per 
day. 


Low water 
in well be- 
hind low 
water in 
river. 


Rate per 
day. 


High water 
in well be- 
hind high 
water in 
river. 


Rate per 
day. 


1 


Meters. 
47 
140 
351 
468 
584 


Days. 

G 

5 

17 

19 

21 


Meters. 
10 
28 
21 
24 
28 


Days. 
2 
3 
4 

7 


Meters. 
23.6 
47.0 
88.0 
67.0 


Days. 

4 
5 
10 


Meters. 
12.5 


2 


28.0 


3 


35.0 


4 




5 

















Observations made by Slichter in very porous gravels in western Kansas, at Gar- 
den, Sherlock, and Deerfield, while showing a more rapid transmission than those 
just indicated, give very marked time lags. The conditions here are different in the 
respect that the ground water does not materially add to the stream flow, and the 
rise of the water in the wells is due wholly to seepage. The slope of the water plane 
is not toward the river, but downstream, at a rate very nearly the same as that of 
the stream. At Sherlock the water plane on July 27, 1904, sloped gently to the river 
from test well No. 5, but the water in test wells Nos. 2, 3, and 6 was lower than the 
river. Between 11 and 4 o'clock the river rose 1.6 feet, and then fell gradually. The 
beginning of the rise was felt in well No. 3, 400 feet north of the river, in less than 
two hours; in wells No. 2, 900 feet north of the river, and No. 5, 550 feet south of 
the river, in between three and four hours; in well No. 4, 1,000 feet south of the 

a Hess, Beobachtungen iiber dasGrundwassersdernorddeutschenEbene. Zeitschr. des Architekten 
und Ingenieurvereins in Hannover, vol. 16, 1870, quoted by Sovka, Der Boden, Leipzig, 1887, pp. 262- 
267, figs. 23-25; and Gerhardt, Der Wasserbau, Leipzig, 1892, pp. 49-50, PI. I, figs. 7, 8. The diagrams 
given by Soyka and Gerhardt do not check with the values given in the text, and as the figures are 
clearly carelessly drawn the text values are reproduced here. 



, 



FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED HY KIYKRS. 



(51 



river, in four hours. Well X<>. •>, 2,500 feet from the river, fell during the whole 
period of observation. The difference in time in the occurrence of the maximum is 
expressed in the following table: 

Difference in time between high water in Arkansas River and wells on its banks, near Sher- 
lock, Kans., July, 1904. 



No. of 
well. 



Distance 

from 
river. 


Lag. 


Feet. 


Hours. 


« -100 


3-6 


a 900 


12 


«500 


30 


6550 


108+(?) 


'■1,000 


L08 


'■2,500 


w 



"North. 
& South. 
cNo rise in five days. 

It will be noted that the most rapid transmission was toward the north, where the 
water plane sloped away from the river, while the slight rise of the water plane 
toward wells Nos. 4 and 5 produced a very marked retardation. 

These observations seem to indicate that the rate of transmission is greater when 
the water plane slopes from the river than when it slopes toward it and help to 
explain the great retardation observed at Celle. In no instance in this Kansas work 
were the effects of floods observed in wells at distances of more than one-fourth of 
a mile from the river. 

In case there is open connection between the river and the well, such as might be 
afforded by limestone caves, changes in level may be felt at considerable distances 
with but very little time lag. Very rapid fluctuations would, however, be obliter- 
ated here, for the well would act very much as the still box used in tidal work, 
which consists of a large well connected with the ocean by means of a relatively 
small passage opening at some distance below the water surface. The wave action 
is entirely obliterated, because the water does not have time to flow in and out of 
the well in the period between fluctuations. The gradual changes of the tide are, 
however, exactly recorded. But direct cavernous connections between wells and 
waterways are rare, and generally river changes act through the interstices of the 
soil in the way observed at Celle and Sherlock or by transmitted pressure as described 
below. 

FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY IRREGULAR INFILTRATION FROM RIVERS WITH NORMALLY 

IMPERVIOUS BEDS. 

Besides rivers which have pervious sides and into which the ground water is 
always free to flow or out of which the water flows whenever the river level exceeds 
that of the ground water, there are many rivers which, under normal conditions, so 
plaster their beds with fine silt that water is unable to flow either in or out. Nearly 
all rivers carrying large amounts of fine silt a are normally in this condition, and 
it is thus that the water in many delta regions is able to flow at heights above the 
surrounding land, and rivers in other regions flow at heights much above the normal 
ground-water level. 

Thus the Leitha at Katzelsdorf, near Wiener Neustadt, flows at a height of 10 to 
70 feet above the level of the ground water at that place, the height depending on 

<«For an example of the silting power of a elear stream see Freeman, John R., Percolation through 
Embankments and the Natural Closing of Leaks, Boston Soc. Civil Eng., June 20, 1888. 



62 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

the stage of the ground water, although there is at all times considerable seepage. 
(PL IX.) 

The Rio Grande in a similar way flows from central New Mexico to the sea, always 
above the ground-water level. 

When the rivers silt up their beds, where the water plane slopes down to the river 
and there is a tendency to discharge into the river, the silting develops an artesian 
head which causes the water to rise above the level of the river in wells sunk within 
the channel. Such occurrences have been reported by Salbach in the Elbe. a This 
Elbe occurrence may, however, be due to a sheet of clay not connected with the 
river-silt deposits of the present regime. During floods such rivers frequently scour 
out their beds and establish a connection between the surface and the underground 
waters. When the river is above the ground-water table, this leakage will raise the 
water level; when the reverse is the case, it may, by permitting a discharge of the 
artesian water, cause the water level in a near-by well to lower. 

Slichter has found at Mesilla Park, N. Mex., that the greater part of the underflow 
in the valley is derived in this way from the flood waters of the Rio Grande. & Pre- 
ceding the flood of October 5, 1904, the ground-water level was several feet below the 
river channel, although the river contained considerable water. The effect of the 
flood was well marked at well No. 7, three-fourths of a mile from the river, but did 
not affect well No. 6, 1.3 miles from the'river, in seventeen days. The rate of trans- 
mission is evidently quite similar in this case to those given above. 

Quite different from these slow rates of change in the ground- water level due to river 
changes are the changes in the London wells ascribed by Clutterbuck and Buckland c 
to floods in Colne River at Watford, Hertfordshire. According to these observers a 
rise in the Colne produces a rise in the London wells, 15 miles distant, in a few hours. 
These floods are due to heavy rains and it seems much more probable that the 
observed rise is due to the weight of the rain on the local London area than to the 
transmitted pressure from a flood 15 miles distant. Fluctuations of this character 
due to rainfall have been observed at Lynbrook, N. Y. (p. 42), and no such rates of 
lateral transmission have been observed either from the river flood or tides, with the 
possible exception of the tidal wells at Lille, France (p. 64.) Certainly there is no 
evidence of such great underground caverns between Lille and the sea as this rate of 
transmission would require, though its very occurrence, if conclusively proven, would 
indicate some such connection. 

FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO A PLASTIC DEFORMATION PRODUCED BY VARYING VOLUMES OF 
"WATER CARRIED BY RIVERS. 

The alternations of load due to the irregular waves, whose crests are the high- and 
low-water stages, which are constantly passing down every river, produce fluctua- 
tions anagalous to those produced by tides, though lacking their periodic character. 
They resemble also the sympathetic fluctuations produced in the 72- and 504-foot 
wells at Lynbrook due to variations in load produced by rainfall and thermometric 
changes (pp. 43, 58). The zone in which these fluctuations will be distinctly recogniz- 
able will be limited to a mile or two in the immediate vicinity of the river. 

REFERENCES RELATING TO FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER IN WELLS PRODUCED BY 

RIVERS. 

Buckland, Dr. Min. Proe. Inst. Civil Eng. [vol. 2], 1842, p. 159. 

Reports that wells in London rise in a few hours alter floods at Watford, 15 miles distant. 
Clutterbuck, James. Observations on the periodical drainage and replenishment of the subterra- 
neous reservoir in the chalk basin of London: Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. [vol. 2], 1842, pp. 156, 
158; 1843, p. 162. 
Same as under Buckland. 

"Salbach (Baurathat Dresden, Saxony), Experiences had during the last twenty-five years with 
waterworks having an underground source of supply; Trans. Am. Soc. Civil Eng., vol. 30, 1893, p 314. 

'< slichter, Charles S., Observations on the ground waters of Rio Grande Valley; Water-Sup. and Irr. 
Paper No. 141, U. S. Geol. Survev, 1905, p 27. 

i' Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., 1842, pp. 158, 159, 1843, p. 162. 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE To LAKE \NI> OCEAN LEVEL8. 63 

Fuller, Mybon L. Notesonthe hydrology of Cuba: Water-Sup. and In. Paper No. 110, U.S.Geol 
Burvey, 1906, 

Records, on p. 189, fluctuations of spring level at Vento, Cuba, due to changes In level "f 
Almendares River, evidently acting through :i free connection of large size In the limestom . 
Harris, Gil bert D. Dnderground waters of south Louisiana: Water-Sup, and Err. Paper No. 101, U.S. 
Geol. Survey, 1904, p. 14; Bull. Louisiana Geol. Survey No. l. L905, p. I. 
Discusses effect of Mississippi River on level of wells along Us banks. 
<;i i;n irdt, P. Per Wasserbau, vol. 1, pt. 1, 3d ed., 1892, pp. 48-49. 

Gives Bess's observations on Aller River, 
Slichter, Charles S. Observations cm the ground waters of Rio Grand Valley: Water-Sup. and 
irr. Paper No. ill. CJ.S.Geol. Survey, 1905, pp. 18,25 28,30. 

Gives observations on effect of outflow from river on ground-water level at El Paso, Mesilla 
Park, and Berino. 

The Underflow Of the Arkansas Valley in western Kansas: Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper No. 153, 

(J. S. Geol. Survey. 

(lives revitlts of observations on the influence of floods in Arkansas River on the water level in 
wells at Garden, Sherlock, and Peetiicld, k'ans., in the summer of 1901. 
Soyka, [sidor. Pie Sch wank unveil des Grundwassers: Penck's Geographische Abhandlungen, vol. 
2, pt. 3, 1888. 

Chapter 3, "DieBeziehungen des Grundwassers zu den oberirdischen Wasserlaufen," contains 
an excellent discussion of middle European conditions. 
Tiio.m assay, Raymond. Geologie pratique de la Louisiane, 1860. 

Contains an entirely fanciful discussion of the seepage of the water from Mississippi River. 
Todd, .i ames E. Geology and water resources of a portion of southeastern South Dakota: Water-Sup. 
and Irr. Paper No. 34, U.S. Geol. Survey, 1900, p. 29: Bull. South Dakota Geol. Survey No. 2, 1898, 
p. 116. 

Records that many deep wells have a greater discharge when Missouri River is high, and sug- 
gests that the increased hydrostatic pressure checks the leakage. 
Veatch, A. C. Geology and underground water resources of northern Louisiana and southern 
Arkansas: Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 46. 

Records fluctuations of water level in artesian wells at Fulton, Ark., agreeing with stages of 
Red River. These are ascribed to pressure of river water acting at the outcrop of the water- 
hearing sands in river bed several miles from the town. This probably is a case of transmitted 
pressure, the blue clay over the water-bearing layer acting as a diaphragm and producing fluctu- 
ations in wells near the river. 

FLUCTUATIONS 1'RODUtED BY CHAXGES IN LAKE LEVEL. 

Variations in lake levels < if whatever cause produce fluctuations of the level in wells 
along their slum's (1 ) by cheeking the rate of outflow when the ground water is 
draining freely into the lake and (2) by transmitted pressure and deformation as in 
ocean tides described below. The pressure of deep-seated waters mightalso be slowly 
affected by the weight of the sediment deposited in the lake beds. This would tend 
to equalize itself by back flow, and is perhaps a factor of no great importance, except 
when considered for very long periods. King has, however, obtained a flow artifi- 
cially by ordinary sedimentation in a tank." 

FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY VARIATIONS IN THE OCEAN LEVEL- 
TIDAL WELLS. 

As partially indicated in the references on page 67, wells and springs which fluctuate 
with the tide have been observed on nearly all coasts and under many different geo- 
logic conditions. These fluctuations are produced in three ways: (1) By transmis- 
sion of pressure through open cavities or passageways affording a free communication 
between the wells and the ocean; (2) by a checking of the rate of discharge of the 
normal ground-water flow through porous beds freely connecting with the ocean; 
and (3) by adeformation of the strata due to the alternate loading and unloading of 
the tides. In this last case, instead of leakage being an important factor, as it is in 
the lirst two, the fluctuations are greater the more nearly complete the separation of 
the oceanic and ground waters. 

''Nineteenth Ann. Kept. V. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 2, 1899, pp. 79-80. 



64 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY CHANGES IN RATE OF OUTFLOW. 

The first two classes differ more in the rate at which the change takes place and the 
character of the zone of influence than in the manner in which it is produced. If the 
ocean level is raised the first effect is to check' the velocity of outflow; but before any 
change occurs in the level of near-by wells it is necessary that water accumulate at the 
point of observation by actually flowing in. • This change, then, is clearly dependent 
on the same factors which influence the rate of flow, and in underground caverns 
where the velocity is a question of miles per day this accumulation will be rapid, 
there will be a relatively short lag, and the distance from the shore to which the rise 
can be propagated before the water begins to fall will be comparatively great. Its 
influence will, however, be restricted to wells along limited lines, following the 
course of the underground passageway. On the other hand, when the water is flow- 
ing through the interstices of porous strata, where the motion is one of feet per day 
instead of miles, the accumulation will be slow, the lag proportionately greater, and 
the zone of influence, while not extending so far from the ocean, will perhaps occupy 
a larger area, because of its uniform distribution along the coast. When the ocean 
level falls the reverse will occur, 

Where there is considerable velocity, as in a cavernous opening, the velocity of 
outflow retards the effect of the rising tide and hastens that of the falling tide and 
there is then, as in tidal rivers, a greater lag at low than at high water. When the 
outflow is slow, as from porous beds, the velocity is not sufficient to exert a very 
great retarding influence. 

The fluctuations in porous materials along the seashore are clearly the same, in 
character and cause as those occurring under similar conditions along river courses 
(see p. 60), and the same great time lag is to be expected. The difference is only in 
the very regular periodic nature of the oceanic fluctuations. Nearly all the shallow 
tidal wells noticed along the seacoasts belong to this class. Such are clearly the 
tidal wells « reported near Bombay and along the Malabar coast; at Barren Island, 
in the Andaman Sea; at Perim Island, in the Red Sea; at South Foreland light-house, 
Kent; the shallow wells at Seagirt, N. J.; and perhaps the wells at Newton Nottage, 
Glamorganshire, Wales, and Chepstow, Monmouth, England. At Perim Island, in 
shallow pits at a distance of 60 to 300 feet from the shore, the lag is such that the 
high water in the wells appears to agree with the low water in the ocean. A similar 
lag is reported in a well 14 feet deep and 400 feet from the river at Chepstow. At 
Newton Nottage, where a shallow well 500 feet from the ocean was observed by Man- 
dan, the lag is but three hours. 

Experience has shown that wells which are sunk entirely in porous beds near the 
seacoast should have their bottoms about midway between high and low tide; if they 
are deeper there is generally an infiltration of salt water. Such wells are commonly 
dry at low tide, but frequently furnish good supplies of fresh water at high tide, at 
which time it is necessary to obtain all the water used for domestic and other pur- 



Wells dependent on underground cavernous openings, such as required by the first 
case, are quite rare. The fluctuations of the Iceland springs, reported by Hallan de 
Roueroy, are perhaps connected with such open fissures, though any opinion from 
the data presented is but a hazard. Perhaps the most remarkable occurrence of 
tidal fluctuation is that reported at Lille in an artesian well at the citadel. These 
fluctuations, which amount to 0.415 meter, are referred by Bailly b to the tides of the 
English Channel, 30 miles away, with a time lag of but eight hours. The only basis 
on which these fluctuations can now be explained is a supposition of a relatively 
open connection between the well and the ocean, which, it must be admitted, is a 
very unsatisfactory hypothesis. 

a See references, pp. 67-69. bComptes rendus, vol. 14, 1842, pp. 310-314. 



TIDAL WELLS. 65 

TIDAL FLUCTUATIONS IN WELLS PRODUCED BY PLASTIC DEFORMATION. 

Besides the shallow wells, depending on ordinary porous surficial beds, there are, 
along ^nd near the seacoast, many deep artesian wells which show tidal fluctuations. 
In many of these wells there arc clearly no underground caverns involved, the 
water-bearing beds being ordinary porous strata in which the water Hows through 
the small interstices at a rate to be expressed in feel rather than miles per day, and 
in which accumulation or depletion by simple flowage will he corresponding!} slow . 
There is, moreover, every reason to believe, in some eases where there are thick clay 
beds above the water-bearing strata, which are known to he continuous lor many 
miles, that there are no near suboceanic outlets of importance. In case there is 
some distant outlet it is evident from the slow rate of change shown in the examples 
given above, where there was a sudden increase or decrease in the volume of river 
water ( pp. 60, 61 ), that the fluctuation produced by a simple checking or hastening of 
the rati' of outflow could he propagated but a short distance, and that a long period 
of time would he necessary for even that. 

There is, however, in the case of waters under artesian head a new factor intro- 
duced which is of very great importance. The pressure of the artesian water exerted 
against the retaining cover, which may he assumed at present to he clay, tends 
to elevate it, thus placing the clay under an upward stress. The addition of any 
weight on the surface tends to disturb the equilibrium. If there is no outlet and the 
weight is applied uniformly, the additional weight can not change the position of 
any portion of the mass, except to the very slight degree of the elastic compressibility 
of the water and the soil. If, however, there is any escape for the confined water, 
such as would be afforded by a well tube, the mass will yield and the water be forced 
up in the tube. "Were the clay layer perfectly elastic, or in the condition of a 
stretched elastic membrane above a perfectly mobile body, there would be no time lag, 
and the water in the well would exactly follow the fluctuations of the ocean w 7 aters; 
but the clay is not to be regarded as an elastic diaphragm, and the water-bearing 
sand is not a perfectly mobile body; moreover, for such a deformation to be felt in 
a well water must be transferred from one point to another, and this involves a time 
element. The deformation is essentially a plastic one; the clay yields to the super- 
posed weight and the water is lifted in the well, but if there were no pressure from 
below the clay could not return to its original position. In the case of tides along 
the coast only the portion of the clay layer under the ocean is loaded, and that load- 
ing is a progressive one from a distant point toward the shore. The effect is a defor- 
mation in which the clay layer is depressed under the ocean and elevated under the 
land. When the weight is removed the artesian pressure tends to reestablish the 
old conditions of equilibrum, and the clay layer is lifted under the ocean and sinks 
under the land. 

If the artesian pressure is high, compared with the tide when the ocean water com- 
mences to fall after high title, this pressure lifts the clay quickly and thus tends to 
shorten the high-tide lag in a near-by well; as the tide falls the high pressure enables 
the clay to follow the tide closely; at low tide the artesian pressure is clearly in the 
ascendancy and the clay still rising in the ocean area. As the tide begins to rise it 
must overcome this artesian pressure before any deformation occurs, and the rising 
curve in the well therefore lags more behind the tide than the falling curve. Under 
such conditions the high-tide lag is less than the low-tide lag. Conversely, when the 
artesian pressure is low compared with the tide, at high tide the feeble artesian pres- 
sure but slowly lifts the clay weight and the lag is long; at low tide, when the clay 
diaphragm is high, the greater tidal weight quickly overcomes the feeble resistance of 
the artesian water and the lag is short; it may then happen that the low-tide lag will 
be less than the high-tide lag.« It is evident that between the two extremes thus 

aThis plastic deformation should not be confused with the elastic deformation of the earth which 
Darwin has considered in his calculations of the effect of tides on seacoasts. He assumes that the 

ire 155—06 5 



66 



FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN" WELLS. 



indicated there are all possible variations, and that the thickness and plasticity of the 
beds above the water-bearing layers are important modifying factors. The fluctua- 
tion in a well in such cases does not furnish an exact measure- of the amount of 
deformation; it furnishes only a fair indication of the variation in pressure at the 
particular point at which the well is sunk. 

The maximum effect is felt at the seacoast- near low-tide mark and gradually 
decreases inward, disappearing in a few miles. It is less if there is leakage from sub- 
ocean springs, for in such cases the escape of the water decreases that available for 
the elevation of the water in the tube. 

* On Long Island the tidal fluctuations observed in the wells at Huntington, Oyster 
Bay, Long Beach, and Douglaston are clearly of this character, all depending more 
on the deformation of the overlying layer through tidal load than on changes of dis- 
charge in leakage. At Huntington (p. 10), Oyster Bay (p. 13), and Douglaston 
(p. 25) the lag is greater at low than at high tide, as would be expected from the 
great head and shallow depths, while at Long Beach, where the head is low, the 
water-bearing sand fine, and the thickness of overlying strata great, the reverse is 
true (p. 19). . The Oyster Bay observations give the following values: 

Summary of observations on tidal wells at Oyster Bay, N. Y. 



Well. 



Casino ... 
Burgess . . 
Lee 

Underhill 



Depth. 



Feet. 
93 
155 

188 
114 



Distance 
from ordi- 
nary high 
tide. 



Feet. 

In water. 

50 

■ 100 

500 



Low-water 



Minutes.- 

12.6 
33.4 
58.0 
75.6 



High-water 



Minutes. 

8.0 

24.7 

42.0 

71.8 



It will be noticed that the lag here increased with the distance from the shore, 
and that the low-water lag increased more rapidly with depth than the high-water 
lag. The cause of the very small difference between the high- and low-water lags in 
the Underhill well, the one farthest from the shore, is not clear, but it is apparently 
related to the lessening of the tidal influence with the increasing distance. 

The Long Beach well is affected both by the tide in the ocean and in the channels 
behind it, the curve being, as would be expected, a simple resultant of the two 
stresses. Because Of the shallow bars at the openings the irregularity in the height 
of the inner low tide is less than in the ocean, and the effect of this difference is 
shown in the greater regularity of the low-tide heights in the well than in the ocean 
(PI. IV, p. 20). Here the high-tide lag is one hour and nineteen minutes and the 
low-tide lag forty minutes, when compared with the ocean, while compared with the 
tide behind the bar the high-tide lag is practically nothing and the low-tide lag is 
nearly two hours. 

To this same class belong nearly all the deep artesian wells along the seacoast 
which fluctuate with the tide. The phenomenon observed is the result of actual 
deformation, and the occurrence of tidal fluctuations in deep wells does not, as has 
been commonly supposed, prove a connection between the water-bearing strata and 
the ocean. Examples of this type are afforded by the deep wells along the New Jer- 

earth has an elasticity equal to twice that of the stiffest glass, and the elastic compression produced 
by loading a sphere of such material of the same size as the earth with a tide ot 5 feet is calculated 
on the supposition that the ocean is in the shape of a narrow canal. According to this the tides on 
the Atlantic coast may cause the land to rise and iall as much as 5 inches. See Darwin, G. H., On 
variations in the vertical due to elasticity of the earth's surface: Brit. Assoc. Rept., 1882, p. 388; Phil. 
Mag., 5th ser., vol. 14, 1882, pp. 409-427. The Tides, Boston and New York, 1898, pp. 139-143, quoted 
by Milne, J., Nature, vol. 38, 1883, p. 367, Seismology, London, 1898, pp. 236-237. 









TIDAL WELLS — BIBLIOORAPBY. 67 

Bey coast, the wells at Pensacola, Fla., the deep wells al Greenwich Hospital. Lon- 
don, ami the wells along the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire coasts. 

Shelford " has presented a very clear diagram of the conditions on the Lincolnshire 
coast. This shows overflow springs occurring at the top of a porous layer and the 
base of an impervious one, and tin- relation between ordinary overflowing and tidal 
wells, all depending on the same strata. Here, as is almost universally the case, the 
tidal wells occur only on the shore, and the wells 2 and •"> miles inland are nol 
affected. In explaining the phenomenon Shelford supposed thai the water found 
an outlet in Silver Pit, a deep hole in the ocean bed about L8 miles from the coast, 
which he has represented in his drawing as the ground-water outlet, and that changes 
in level in the discharge produced the tidal fluctuations. Such a simple change in 
the rate of discharge could affect the wells IS miles distant only if there were a large 
open cavernous connection. That there is no such cavern is shown by the fact that, 
the effect diminishes very rapidly in passing inland, entirely dying out in i' miles. 
There is no reason why the effect should he propagated IS miles to the coast and then 
suddenly cease, when tidal wells of the same character penetrating a thick clay bed 
and obtaining water in the upper pomus layer of the chalk occur along the whole 
Lincolnshire and Yorkshire coast. In many cases springs near the coast, deriving 
their supply from the water beneath the clay, are likewise tidal. The cause of this 
phenomenon in the Bridlington Quay wells, Yorkshire, was correctly given by Inglis 
in 1817. He recognized in the clay layer a moving diaphragm affected by the tidal 
pressure from above and the artesian pressure from below. 

REFERENCES RELATING TO TIDAL FLUCTUATIONS IN WELLS AND SPRINGS. 

Anonymous. Louden Athenaeum, August, 1860; Jour. Franklin Inst., vol. 72, 1S61, pp. 309-310. 

States that tides in wells near the sea are universal, and records their occurrence about Bom- 
hay and along the Malabar coast wherever the material dug through is porous. Wells dug in 
trap rock are not tidal. 
Baili.y. Rapport sur les variations observers dans la depense du puits artesien de l'hopital militaire 
de Lille et dans les hauteurs de la colonne d'eau quand on a interrompu l'ecoulement: Comptes 
rendus, vol. 14, 1842, pp. 310-314. 

Gives observations showing that fluctuations, having a range of 0.415 meter, are clearly tidal 
and occur eight hours behind the tide on the adjacent coast between Dunkerque and Calais. 
Reports that tidal wells also occur at Noyelle-sur-Mer, Departement de la Somme, and at Ful- 
ham, London, England. 
Braithwaite, Fredrick. Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 9, 1850, p. 168; vol. 14, 1855, pp. 507-522. 

"At Greenwich Hospital, London, the land springs ebb and flow 2 feet 6 inches, the sand 
springs, 3 feet, and the chalk springs, 4 feet 6 inches every tide." The total depth of the chalk 
well referred to is 149 feet. 
Christie, James. Jour. Franklin Institute, vol. 101, 1901, p. 193. 

Reports fresh-water well near shore which fluctuates with the tide. 
Clutterbuck, James. Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 9, 1850, p. 170. 

Explains tidal fluctuation in wells on basis of leakage between high- and low-tide marks. 

Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 14, 1855, pp. 510-511. 

Wells at Ramsgate, England, are sunk to half-tide level. These begin to fall at half tide, are 
dry at low tide, and begin to rise at half tide on the flood. 

Mm. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 19, 1860, p. 33. 

Reports that wells at Portsmouth, England, are tidal, and concludes that this proves a free 
connection -with the sea. 
Desaguliers, Rev. J. T. An attempt to account for the rising and falling of the water of so:ne 
ponds near the sea, etc. Trans. Phil. Soc. London, No. 384, vol. 33, 1724, p. 132; Trans. Phil. Soe. 
London from 16G5-1800 (abridged), vol. 7, 1809, pp. 39-41. 

Reports well at Greenhithe in Kent, between London and Gravesend, which appears to fluctu- 
ate inversely with the tide. This he explains by imagining a natural siphon. 
Douglas, James Nichols. Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 47, 1879, p. 88. 

Chalk well at South Foreland light-house, Kent, England, 283 feet from face of cliff, 280 feet 
deep, with bottom level with half tide, has a peculiarity common to many wells of this region in 
that it is dry at low tide and filled with pure spring water at high tide. 

aShelford. W., Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 90, 1887, p. 69. 



68 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL FN WELLS. 

Frazer, Persifor. Notes on fresh-water wells of the Atlantic beach: Jour. Franklin Inst., 1890, vol. 
130, p. 231. 

Reports well at Sea Girt, N. J., 20 feet deep, which rises and falls with tide in ocean 150 feet 
distant 
Hallan de Roucroy. Comptes rendus, vol. 12, 1841, pp. 1000-1001. 

States that well at Lille, France, shows tidal fluctuations. 
Hutton, Capt. F. W. Trans, and Proc. New Zealand Inst., 1895, vol. 28, 1896, p. 655. 

States that artesian wells at New Brighton are affected by the tide. 
Inglis, Gavin. On the cause of ebbing and flowing springs [at Bridlington, Yorkshire]: Phil. Mag., 
vol. 50, 1817, pp. 81-83. 

■"When the recess of the ocean lessens the pressure upon the upper surface, the hydraulic pres- 
sure on the under stratum must raise the whole mass in proportion as the force is superior to the 
resistance. The return of the tide brings with it the weight and altitude of its mass of water and 
acts on the flexibility of the clay as a pressure would on a hydraulic blowpipe." 
King, Fbanklin H. Fluctuations in the level and rate of movement of ground water: Bull. U. S. 
Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, pp. 52-53. 
Suggests that tidal fluctuations may be produced in wells by coastal deformation. 
JMandan, H. G. Note on ebbing and flowing well at Newton Nottage [Glamorganshire, Wales] : Abs. 
.Proc. Geol. Soc. London, 1898, pp. 85-86; Nature, vol. 58, 1898, pp. 45-46. 
Shallow well 500 yards from shore ebbs and flows with the tide; lag about three hours. 
Mallet, F. R. Ebbing and flowing wells: Nature, vol. 58, 1898, p. 104. 

Shallow wells in volcanic ash on Barren Island, Andaman Sea, show tidal fluctuations clearly 
due to retardation of leakage. 
McCallie, S. W. A preliminary report on the artesian-well systems of Georgia: Bull. Geol. Survey 
Georgia No. 7, 1898, p. 112. 

Reports three artesian wells at Tybee Island, near Savannah, Ga., 240 feet deep, one of which is 
affected by the tide. 
Moore, H. C. A well intermitting inversely with the ebb and flow of the tide: Trans. Woolhope Nat- 
uralists Field Club, 1892, pp. 23-24; Jour. Manchester Geol. Soc, vol. 10, 1894, pp. 223-224. 

Well at Chepstow, Monmouth, fluctuates inversely with the tide. Shallow pits on Perim Island, 
Straits of Bab el Mandeb, Red Sea, 20 to 100 yards from shore, are full of fresh water at low tide, 
empty at high tide; explained on basis of time required for filtration. 
Pearson, Rev. W. Observations on some remarkable wells near the seacoast at Brighthelmstone 
and other places contiguous. Jour. Nat. Phil. Chem. Arts, vol. 3, 1802, pp. 65-69. 

States that shallow wells at Brighton fluctuate with the tide, but with a lag of two hours. He 
ascribes the fluctuation to retardation of leakage. 
Pliny the Elder. (Caius Plinius Secundus.) Historia Naturalis, lib. 2, cap. 106: (Pliny's Natural 
History, Bostock and Riley's translation, vol. 1, 1887, pp. 134-135). 

" There is a small island in the sea opposite the river Timavus, containing warm springs which 
increase and decrease at the same time with the tide of the sea." 
Riviere. Comptes rendus, vol. 9, 1839, p. 553. 

Spring at Givre, canton Montiers-les-Maux, fluctuates with tide. 
Robert, E. Comptes rendus, vol. 14, 1842, pp. 417-418. 

Reports that springs near Buder, Olafsen, and Paulsen, Iceland, ebb and flow with the tide. 
Roberts, Isaac. On the attractive influence of the sun and moon causing tides ... in the under- 
ground water in porous strata: Rept. Brit. Assoc, 1883, p. 405; see also Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc, 
vol. 4, pt. 3, 1881, pp. 233-236. 

Reports that in a well sunk in Triassic sandstone in which the water rose 60feet above sea level, 
autographic records showed solar and lunar tides. (See p. 69.) 
Shelford, W. Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 90, 1887, p. 68. 

Describes wells 200 feet deep, on the North Sea, near Louth, Lincolnshire, which fluctuate 3 
feet with spring tides. 
Sinclair, W. F. Ebbing and flowing wells: Nature, vol. 58, 1898, p. 52. 

Describes well at Alibag, near Bombay, in sand dunes about 25 yards from high-tide mark, 
. which fluctuated with the tide after heavy rains when the ground water level was high. Tide 
in well occurred later than that in ocean. 
Storer, Dr. John. On an ebbing and flowing stream discovered by boring in the harbor of Brid- 
lington [Yorkshire]: Phil. Trans., vol. 105, pt. 1, 1815, pp. 54-59; Phil. Mag., vol. 45, 1815, pp. 432- 
436. 
S., W. On ebbing and flowing springs: Phil. Mag., vol. 50, 1817, p. 267. 

States that wells. near Hull under conditions similar to those at Bridlington are not tidal. 
Trautwine, J. C, jr. Jour. Franklin Inst., vol. 51, 1901, pp. 193-194. 

Explains tidal wells on basis of free discharge in ocean, as from an open tube; changes in pres- 
sure at discharge change water level in wells as if they were piezometers along a conduit. 
Tribus, L. L. Trans. Am. Soc. Civil Eng., vol, 30, 1893, p. 695. 

Mentions tidal fluctuations in wells at Pensacola, Fla., li miles from the shore front, 4 to 6 
inches in diameter, and from 60 to 280 feet deep. Water rises 16 to 17 feet above sea level and 



GROUND-WATER TIDES GEOLOGIC CAUSES. 69 

fluctuates 6 to 10 inches daily with the tide. He supposes, therefore, that thej tap subterranean 
rivers which have free connection with the ocean. Note: The tides ai Pensacola are rather 
irregular, with :i small semidiurnal and large diurnal value, mid it is quite possible thai a portion 
of the fluctuation observed is due to barometric and thermometric changes. 

Vermeole, C. »'. Water supply Eor wells: Ann. Rept. New Jersey Geol. Survey for 1898, 1899, p. 163. 
States thai many wells along thecoasl of New Jersey show tides ci irresponding in period, but not 
in time of occurrence, with the tides oi the ocean, and with a smaller range. 

Wood, James G. Jour. Manchester Geog. Soc, vol. L0, 1894, pp. 237-239; Abs. Proc. Geol. Soc. London, 
1898, p. 86. 

Reports well near thai described by H. C. Moore (see above), and suggests that well is fed by 
water coming along fault, which passes under the river; that at high tide this fault is closed, 
cutting off supply, and at low tide opens again, allowing an influx; and that therefore well fluctu- 
ates inversely with tide. (Note: A simple leakage would, on accountof slow propagation of 
change, explain the phenomena quite as well, and more naturally.) 

Wool. man, LEWIS. Artesian wells in New Jersey: Ann. Rept. New Jersey Geol. Survey for 1898, 1899, 
pp. 76, 78, 79. 

Records that the height of water in many artesian wells along the New Jersey coast fluctuates 
with the tide. At Venter fluctuations were noted in a well 813 feet deep, which had a range of 
7j to 1 1.; inches, and a lag of approximately forty-five minutes. Similarly at Avalon, in a well 925 
feet deep, the fluctuation observed had a range of from 1(H to 15) inches. 
Young, Rev. G. and J. Bird. A Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast. 4°. Whitby, 1822; 2ded., 
1828. 

Ebbing and Mowing springs, Bridlington, pp. 22-24; intermittent springs, pp. 27-28. 

TIDES IX THE GROUND WATER PRODUCED BY DIRECT SOLAR AND 

LUNAR ATTRACTION. 

The ground water has not an extended level surface like the ocean, where the 
tides range from nothing to 50 feet, or even the Great Lakes, where the tidal fluctua- 
tion is but a few inches. The ground-water table is comparatively level only over 
areas which are but a fraction of the size of the Great Lakes, and direct ground- 
water tides would be of extremely small size. It seems quite unlikely, therefore, 
that the fluctuations in the Maghull (Liverpool) well are due to direct solar and 
lunar attraction, as Roberts" suggests, but, as King& has already pointed out, are 
rather to be ascribed to the action of the ocean tides on the near-by coast. 

FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO GEOLOGIC CAUSES. 

In regions of abundant rainfall the ground-water table is but a subdued reflection, 
of the surface topography, and any changes in the topography will therefore change 
the position of the ground-water table. If a stream valley is filled by sedimentation, 
the ground water is raised over the whole tributary area up to the ground-water 
divide; if the stream valley is eroded, the water level is in like manner lowered. 
Similarly, if a lake is produced by a landslip or destroyed by the erosion of its outlet," 
or the ocean level is changed by orographic movements, the ground-water table like- 
wise is changed. To these broad generalizations certain exceptions are to be men- 
tioned. If a river is intrenched in an impervious layer overlain by porous strata, it 
is evident that the position of the impervious bed in the bank, when the water level 
in the river is below it, is the factor which determines the position of the ground- 
water table. A stream may thus lower its bed without affecting the adjacent ground 
water. Examples of this kind are found in the Isar at Munich and the Salzach at 
Salzburg, both of which have deepened their beds in recent times, due to regulating 
works, without lowering the adjacent ground water, because the deepening was 
entirely in impervious material. ( ' 

Solution and deposition by percolating waters may cause a gradual depression or 
elevation of the water level; solution, by increasing the porosity and consequent rate 
of flow, will enable quite a quantity of water to escape along certain lines and so lower 
the water level; deposition, in an opposite way, will raise it. 

a Roberts, Isaac, Rept Brit. Assoc. 1883, 1884, p 405. 

& King, Franklin H., Bull. IT. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, p. 54. 

"Soyka, Penck's Geographische Abhandlungen, vol. 2, pt. 3, Wien, 1888, pp. 60, 63. 



70 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

In regions where the rainfall is low and the ground-water table is below the level 
of the rivers changes in topography naturally have little effect, except where the 
erosion is sufficient to cut the ground-water table. Generally in such regions the 
rivers contribute to the ground water by seepage", and the amount so contributed 
becomes small when the conditions are favorable for the deposition of silt with which 
the rivers plaster up their beds. During flood periods the rivers scour out the silt 
and again allow the percolation of water. 

Earthquakes may produce fluctuations due to several causes: Small fluctuations 

.may result directly from the earth's tremors; a deformation without faulting may 

produce changes in pressure; and faulting may make new ground-water outlets which 

will cause the water in neighboring wells to rise or fall according to their relation to 

the faulting. 

Geyser phenomena may produce both periodic and irregular fluctuations of the 
water level, and Slichter has suggested that the peculiar periodic fluctuations at Uri- 
sino Station, New South Wales (p. 76) , may be due to such a cause. 

In this connection it may be well to refer to the hypothetical siphon, or Tantalus- 
cup arrangement, which the old philosophers gave as an explanation of intermittent 
springs," a theory which has survived in Houston's Physical Geography, a work still 
used in the high schools in some parts of this country. & From a geologic stand- 
point the existence of such a siphon arrangement as this theory postulates may be 
regarded as almost impossible because of the difficulty of finding an air-tight passage. 
The fluctuations are now known to be due in many cases to causes not understood at the 
time this hypothesis was advanced, and in the light of our present knowledge an 
intermittent spring depending on a natural siphon for its action would be regarded 
.as a most exceptional phenomenon. It would be necessary to do more than prove 
that a spring or well ebbs and flows to establish the existence of such a siphon. 

FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED BY HUMAN AGENCIES. 

EFFECT OF SETTLEMENT, DEFORESTATION, AND CULTIVATION ON 
THE LEVEL OF WATER IN WELLS. 

It is well known that many hillside springs throughout the entire eastern United 
States which furnished water when the country was first settled are now dry, that 
large areas of former marsh land are now in cultivation, and that streams on which 
boats plied in the early days are no longer navigable. The rainfall records do not 
indicate that there have been any radical climatic changes, and the changes are clearly 
the' result of human occupation, c 

. Part of this is due to the fact that large areas have been artificially drained by 
tiles, ditches, or absorption pits; beaver dams and other stream obstructions, such as 
the Great Red River Raft, have been removed, with the consequent drainage of greater 
or less areas. < l Some of the hillside springs have merely been buried as the soil 
washed in from the surrounding lands, while others have been affected by the drainage 
of the lower lands. 

Different kinds of vegetation use different amounts of water f - and affect the surface 

a See Regnault, Pere, Phil. Conversations, vol. 2, conversation 6: Dechales, Tract. 17 de Pontibus 
Naturalibus, etc.; Desaguliers, Rev. J. T., Trans. Phil. Soc. London, No. 384, vol. 33, 1724 (abridged 
edition Trans. 1665-1800, vol. 7, pp. 39-41) ; Atwell, Joseph, Trans. Phil. Soc. London, No. 424, vol. 37, 
1732 (abridged edition Trans. 1665-1800, vol. 7, pp. 544-555). 

bFor a more recent suggestion of the same theory, see Knightly, T. E., Geol. Mag., n. s., decade 4, 
vol. 5, 1898, pp. 333-334. 

cSee, in this connection, King, Franklin H., Bull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, p. 42; Lane, 
Alfred C, Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper No. 30, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1899, pp. 54-55. 

dProf. Paper TJ. S. Geol. Survey No. 46, 1906. 

eThe literature on the amount of water transpired from plants and evaporated from the earth 
under different conditions is very extensive, but the results are neither readily comparable nor 
readily applicable to natural conditions, because of the differing and in many cases unnatural condi- 
tions under which these experiments have been tried. For a review of the literature, see Harrington, 
M. W., Review of forest-meteorology observations, and Fernow, B. E., Relation of forest to water 
supply; Bull. Bureau of Forestry, U. S. Dept. Agric. No. 7, 1873; Lueger, Otto, Die Wasserversorgung 
der Stadte: Der stadtische Tiefbau, Bd. II, pp. 176-177, 196-205, bibliography, pp. 143-161; Wollny, 
Ewald, Expt. Station Record, vol. 4, 1893, pp. 531-533; King, F. H., The Soil, New York, 1895, Drainage 
and Irrigation, New York, 1899. 



FLUCTUATIONS PRODUCED HV HI'MAN AGENCIES. 71 

evaporation in differenl ways, and a change in the plant covering or crop over large 
areas may clearly result in a broad elevation or lowering of the water level. Simi- 
larly, certain methods of cultivation conserve more moisture than would find its way 
into the ground under certain natural conditions, w liile others allow large quantities 

to flow off tin- surface. Fertilizers and manures affect the rate of percolation in dif- 
ferent ways; some greatly hasten and others retard the percolation of the soil water. 
The relation of cultivation to the position of the ground water is therefore very com- 
plex, ami it is clearly possible to have different results on adjacent fields. In regard 
to the effect of forested areas on percolation it should he pointed out, on the one 
hand, that i 1 I a portion of the rain water, varying from 8.5 to oil per cent" of the 
yearly rainfall, is caught in the crowns of the trees and is evaporated without reach- 
ing the ground; i '2 ) the absorption capacity of the forest litter and moss is great, and 
water can be contributed to the ground water only after this is saturated; while the 
evaporation from this surface is slow, it is to be considered evaporation from a satu- 
rated surface, and the net result may be greater than from a region where the water 
sinks rapidly into the ground; (3) the old litter or humus is, according to the experi- 
ments by Riegler, Ebermeyer, and Wollny, practically impervious, and, while the 
fresh litter may absorb large quantities of water, the impervious humus or rotted lit- 
ter prevents the water from reaching the ground water; (4) the roots of the trees in 
some cases draw' from ground water that is entirely out of the reach of ordinary field 
plants. Moreover, the direct observations of Ototzky b and Henry and Tolsky c yield 
the positive result that in Russia and France the level of the ground water is decidedly 
lower under forests than under cleared land. The results of Ototzky' s observations 
are summarized in the Experiment Station Record in the following words: 

This is a translation from the Russian giving the results of a hydrological survey in the steppes 
region. The conclusion is reached that, physico-geographical conditions being the same, the level 
of ground water is lower in forests than in adjacent steppes or in general in neighboring open spaces. 
The level falls as forests are approached, the fall sometimes being very sudden, and it is more marked 
in case of old forests than new. 

On the other hand, it should be pointed out that the stream flow from forested 
regions is more constant than from unforested ones,^ and as this is to be considered 
as due to ground-water phenomena it indicates a greater percolation. 

On the plains, groves and hedgerows by acting as wind breaks tend to elevate the 
water level by decreasing the surface evaporation. 

It is well known to agriculturists that it is possible to cultivate the soil so that the 
evaporation will be greater than under natural conditions or so that the moisture 
will be conserved. It is thus possible to either increase or decrease the ground water 
by cultivation. In the semiarid region of the Middle West, where the rainfall is 
light, the secret of the so-called " dry or arid farming" is to so prepare the soil as to 
insure the percolation of all the rain water or of a very large percentage of it, and to 
prevent its escape by evaporation. To accomplish this various methods of subsoil- 
ing, subsurface rolling, and surface mulching, either by pulverizing the soil or by the 
addition of straw or manure, have been employed, in some cases with marked suc- 
cess. I am informed by Prof. Charles S. Slichter that in western Kansas, where the 
Campbell system is employed, the ground water has in places been raised several 
feet by the increased percolation. 

a See Bull. Division of Forestry, U. S. Dept. Agric. No. 7, 1893, pp. 100-101, 130-131, and references 
therein given; also Lueger, Wasserversorgung der Stadte, p. 197. 

bOtotzky, P., Ann. Sci. Agron. 1897, vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 455-477, pis. 2; review, Expt. Station Record, 
vol. 9, 1898, p. 1041. 

i-Henrv, E., and Tolsky, A., Ann. Soc. Agron. 1902, vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 396-422; review, Expt. Station 
Record, vol. 15, 1903. p. 125. 

dSee Bull. Division of Forestry, U. S. Dept. Agric, No. 7, 1892, pp. 158-170; Hanson, Marsden, Com- 
parison of low-water discharge from a timbered with that from a comparatively timberless area: 
Water-Sup. and Irr. Paper No. 46, TT. S. Geol. Survey. 1901, pp. 40-47. 



72 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

EFFECT OF IRRIGATION. 

Irrigation, almost without exception, raises the ground-water level, and in regions 
where there is no natural ground- water outlet so placed that it furnishes a sufficient 
natural escape for the underflow, elaborate systems of tiling and pumping are neces- 
sary to keep the water level from reaching the surface in the low places and con- 
verting them into marshes or alkali flats. Carpenter reports that in the Cache la 
Poudre Valley, Colorado, the water level has been raised 20 to 40 feet.« The effects 
of irrigation in the King River Valley, California, are shown in Water-Supply and 
Irrigation Paper No. 58, PI. XXVI. 

On Long Island only limited areas have so far been irrigated, but these bid fair to 
rapidly increase. On account of the very porous character of the soil and the fact 
that all the water used must be obtained from the ground water of the region 
involved, there is no danger of serious raising of the ground- water level; indeed, the 
net result here of extreme irrigation, which would have to be done by pumping, 
would be a lowering of the ground-water level to the extent of the added loss by 
evaporation and plant transpiration. When the water for irrigation is supplied 
wholly from springs, as it is at one or two points near Flushing, or where supplied 
from the city waterworks, as at Elmhurst, 6 the result is a local raising of the ground- 
water level 

EFFECT OF DAMS. 

In regions where the ground water is tributary to the stream channels the effect 
of the ponding of streams, except where the material of the bed of the reservoir 
is entirely impervious, is to raise the ground-water level. As the pond or reservoir 
is relatively permanent, the ground water generally has time to adjust itself to the 
new conditions, and an elevation is produced which is persistent as long as the reser- 
voir lasts. Thus on Long Island, where dams were built in all the little streams at 
an early day, the effect has been to abnormally raise the ground-water level over 
considerable areas. 

In mill ponds of this character the use of the water during the day and the accumu- 
lation during the night give rise to a periodic fluctuation of the water in the wells 
along their banks which tends to accentuate the temperature effect. 

In regions where the ground- water table is below the stream, ponding will increase 
the leakage, though this may naturally check itself in time by the deposition of silt 
and colloidal material. 

EFFECT OF UNDERGROUND WATER-SUPPLY DEVELOPMENTS. 

Underground water is developed for water supply in one of four general ways: 
(1) By subsurface dams, (2) by infiltration galleries, (3) by pumping from single 
wells or groups of wells, and (4) by flowing wells. 

EFFECT OF SUBSURFACE DAMS. 

In regions where there are valleys with impervious sides filled with porous mate- 
rial a dam across the valley will pond this underflow and force it to the surface. 
This has been employed in many regions of the West where dry stream beds with 
considerable underflow abound. The effect of such a structure on the ground-water 
level is shown in Water-Supply and Irrigation Paper No. 67, Pis. V, VII. 

EFFECT OF INFILTRATION GALLERIES. 

Infiltration galleries may either raise or lower the ground-water level. When con- 
structed along the line of contact of a pervious and impervious bed they may act in 

^Carpenter, L. G., Seepage or return waters from irrigation: Bull. Colorado Expt. Station, No. 33, 
1896, p. 4. 
bBull. Office Expt. Stations, U. S. Dept. Agric., No. 148, 1904. 



FLUCTUATIONS Dl'K T< > I'l'MI'INO. 



73 



a way analogous to a subsurface dam. Where deep in pervious layers they offer a 
new outlet ai a lower level than the natural one, and so depress the water plane. 
This effect in the same as thai in a pumped well, except that here the cone of depres- 
sion is greatly Lengthened in one direction. 

EFFECT OF PUMPING. 

Toe tirst effect of pumping is to develop a more or less symmetrical cone of depres- 
sion, of which the well is the center. The steepness and slope of the cone depend 
mi such factors as the porosity, rate of flow, rate of pumping, and uniformity of soil. 

The effect of such a depression in the porous material on Long Island is to lower the 
water in adjacent wells and drain the near-by ponds and marsh areas. a 

The effect of this lowering of the water table has a marked effect on the stream 
flow on Long Island, as is shown by the following table, compiled by L. B. Ward: 

Effect of ground-water pumping in diminishing stream flow, from 187S to 1899, in the old 
watershed of the Brooklyn waterworks, comparing five-year periods.^ 



Period. 



Aver- 
age 
annual 
rain- 
fall. 



Average annual 
rainfall collect- 
ed, referred to 
watershed as a 
whole. 



Driven-well supply. 



Area of 
water- 
shed. 



Ex- 
pressed 
as rain- 
fall. 



Daily per 
square 
mile. 



1873-1877 
1878-1882 
1883-1887 
1889-1893 
189.5-1899 



Inches. 
43. 33 
41.58 
43.30 
45. 05 
43.14 



Per cent. 
25. 07 
29. 60 
31. 60 
38.43 
36.32 



Inches. ' 
10.86 
12.31 
13. 68 
17. 31 
15. 67 



Square 
miles. 

52.30 

55.14 

64. 42 

65. 54 

66. 44 



Inches. 

( & ) 
2.95 
5. 85 
7.76 



Gallons. 

(») 

(") 

140,392 
278, 383 
369, 581 





Other pumped 

sources of 

supply. 


Daily 

total per 
square 
mile 
derived 
from all 
sources in 
the wa- 
tershed. 


Water collected as stream 
flow, referred to 50 square 
miles of watershed. 


Period. 


Ex- 
pressed 
as rain- 
fall. 


Daily per 
square 
mile. 


Daily per 
square 
mile. 


Expressed as rain- 
fall. 




Amount. 


Propor- 
tion of 
total. 


1873-1877 


Inches. 
0.18 
.99 
2.30 
4.17 
2.74 


Gallons. 
8, 659 
47, 063 
109, 041 
198, 605 
130, 224 


Gallons. 
517, 206 
585, 978 
651, 506 
824, 195 
745, 983 


Gallons. 
532, 034 
594, 310 
518, 071 
455, 153 
327, 122 


Inches. 
11.17 
12.48 
10.88 
9.56 
6.89 


Per cent. 
25. 79 


1878-1882 


30. 02 


1883-1887 


25.13 


1889-1893 


21.22 


189.5-1899 


15. 96 







a Merchants' Association of New York, The Water Supply of the City of New York, 1900, p. 186. 
bBeganinl883. 

While all pumped wells cause a cone of depression, in regions where the ground 
water moves rapidly and where the demand does not exceed the supply the recovery 
is very rapid, as is shown by the figures prepared by W. E. Spear from the records 
of the Brooklyn water department. ° 

Several points are noteworthy about these diagrams. The water-bearing strata, 
in the deep and shallow wells, in each case are separated by rather fine material 
which may usually be called a clay. There is a distinct flow below the clay layer 
with a velocity, as shown by Slichter, of 6 feet per day, while that immediately above 



a See discussion in Prof. Paper U. S. Geo!. Survey No. 44, 1906* pp. 78-79. 

!>Rept. New York City Commission on Additional Water Supply, 1904. appendix 



Pis. XI, XII. 



74 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL FN WELLS. 

the clay layer is but 18 inches. Near the surface the velocity is 3 to 15 feet per day. 
It is therefore interesting to notice at Agawam, which is essentially a deep-well 
station, the sympathetic effect of pumping in the lower layer on the water in the 
upper. There is also an important difference in the depression produced in well 
No. 11 and well No. 16. This indicates local irregularities in porosity. At Merrick 
the wells connected to the suction are all shallow hut one; the effect of pumping is 
therefore more marked in the shallow than the deep wells. ■ It is here quite normally 
greatest in the center well. The recovery after pumping is very rapid in both cases, 
indicating that the supply is a free one and that the plants have not overdrawn it. 

The records for a 181-foot well at the Queens County Water Company pumping 
station, near Hewlett, N. Y., show regular fluctuations due to pumping (PL III, 
p. 18). This well is 3,000 feet from the pumping station and 2,000 feet from the 
nearest pumped well, and the records showed fluctuations of such a regular rhythmical 
character that they were at first thought to represent fluctuations due entirely to 
temperature changes. Further consideration in connection with the record of pump- 
ing from the station shows that the fluctuations are almost wholly due to pumping, 
although there is perhaps a slight temperature effect involved. 

The response of the water level in the deeper wells to changes of pressure at the 
surface, due to rainfall, tidal, barometric, and thermometric fluctuations, suggests that 
the removal by pumping of the surface ground water over an artesian stratum will, 
by relief from load, produce sympathetic fluctuations in deep wells where there is 
absolutely no connection between the water-bearing strata. 

EFFECT OF ARTESIAN-WELL DEVELOPMENTS. 

The universal experience in artesian basins has been that after a time the head 
decreases. This is due to many causes. When the whole basin is affected, it indicates 
that the outflow or pumping from the wells exceeds the inflow from the porous strata, 
and a gradual decrease is to be expected until these factors are balanced. A well or 
group of wells may be influenced by interference from a single well favorably situated. 
Thus the drilling of a well in which the outflow is many feet below that of near-by 
wells quickly affects the head of the higher wells. Very often where but a few wells 
here and there are affected the decrease in head is to be regarded as wholly due to 
leakage, either on the outside of the casing or by the failure of the casing through 
corrosion. 

All artesian wells are sooner or later pumped, and the effect of the pumping is often 
to lower the head over wide areas. The diminution of the head in the chalk wells 
in London during the early part of the nineteenth century is well shown by 
Clutterbuck.« 

EFFECT OF LARGE CITIES ON THE WATER LEVEL. 

Aside from the general lowering of the water level in cities due to pumpage, 
another factor tending in the same direction is a decrease of the inflow of rain waters. 
The mass of buildings, paved streets, and drainage systems absolutely prevent the 
infiltration of rain water over wide areas. This loss is, however, in part replaced by 
leakage from the water and sewer systems. 

The loading resulting from the placing of large and heavy buildings on small areas 
will have the same effect as loading due to any natural causes, except that the former 
is so gradual that in most cases the water has time to escape laterally. It is conceiv- 
able, however, that the loading may exceed the rate of outflow and a temporary 
measurable increase in the artesian head be produced, but this is of such slight value 
as to be of theoretical rather than practical importance. The effect is practically 
nothing when the building rests on bed rock, as at New York, and reaches its maxi- 

aMin. Proe\ Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 9, 1850, pi. vi, p. 180. 



FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO INDETERMINATE CAUSES. 75 

mum al points like New Orleans, Galveston, and other coasl towns underlain by 

unconsolidated Tertiary :m<l Quaternary beds. A much re readily measurable 

effect would l>e produced by large fires, which in a short time would remove a large 
weight from a limited area. These pressure effects would be noticeable only in wells 
in which the water is already under artesian head and when the overlying beds have 
considerable plasticity. They would clearly be greatest in unconsolidated materials 
and would decrease with the thickness df the strata above the water-bearing layer. 

EFFECT PRODUCED BY LOADED FREIGHT TRAINS. 

The sensitiveness of the water in wells to any change in load at the surface is 
strikingly illustrated by the oscillation produced by slowly moving freight trains at 
.Madison. Wis. This is described by King as follows: a 

While the self registering instrument was upon well No. 48, it was observed that there were frequent 
records of sharp short-period curves shown upon the sheet, which at first were supposed to be the 
result of accidental jars which the instrument sustained; but the frequency of their occurrence and 
the fact that they always indicated elevations of the water led to a closer scrutiny and their final 
association with the movement of trains past the well. On the eight-day instrument these fluctua- 
tions are shown as single dashes. Imt with the one-day form the curve was open. The well in which 
these disturbances occur is situated about 140 feet from the railroad track and has a depth of 40 feet. 
It is tubed up with 6-inch iron pipe to the sandstone, 37 feet below the surface, and the water has a 
mean depth of about 20 feet in it. 

The strongest rises in the level of the water are produced by the heavily loaded trains, which move 
rather slowly. A single engine has never been observed to leave a record, and the rapidly moving 
passenger tains produce only a slight movement, or none at all, which is recorded by the instrument. 
The figure shows the curve to be produced by a rapid but gradual rise of the water, which is followed 
by only a slightly less rapid fall to the normal level, there being nothing oscillatory in character 
indicated by any of the tracings nor observable to the eye when watching the pen while in motion. 
The downward movement of the pen usually begins when the engine has passed the well by four or 
five lengths, and when the pen is watched, it may be seen to start and to descend quite gradually, 
occupying some seconds in the descent. 

This is very similar to the various pressure effects noted above, due to tidal, baro- 
metric, and rainfall loading, and to transmitted fluctuations due to variations in local 
load produced by temperature changes, except that the time of lateral transmission 
is rather shorter, and it is not clear that the water is under artesian head. 

FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO INDETERMINATE CAUSES. 
SMALL FLUCTUATIONS. 

The extreme susceptibility of the water level in wells to pressure changes would 
lead one to expect many minute fluctuations; and, indeed, all the well curves show 
a great number of such fluctuations superposed on the larger fluctuations produced 
by the dominant element at that point. Many are clearly compound waves of very 
complex character and represent the resultant of many forces. They emphasize the 
continued state of unrest of the earth's surface. These fluctuations can be properly 
studied only with instruments having both a large vertical and time scale, and 
their elucidation would necessitate corresponding meteorologic instruments of great 
delicacy. 

On the day gages at Hewlett (p. 18) there is a distinct series of minor fluctuations 
with a well-defined period of about twenty minutes. These greatly resemble the 
minor oscillations in the tidal curves at many points. 6 

a Bull. U. S. Weather Bureau No. 5, 1892, pp. 67-68. 

bSee Airy, Sir G. B., On the seiches or n on tidal undulations of short period at Malta: Phil. Trans. 
Royal Soc, 1878, pp. 1'23-138 Dawson, W. Bell, Notes on secondary undulations recorded by self- 
registering tide gages, Trans. Royal Soc. Canada, sec. 3, 1895, pp. 25-26; Illustrations of remarkable 
secondary tidal undulations in Nova Scotia, Trans. Royal Soc. Canada, sec. 3, 1899, pp. 23-26. Duff, 
A. W., Secondary undulations shown by recording tide gages; Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. New Bruns- 
wick, 1S97; Am. Jour. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 3, 1897, pp. 406-412; Am. Jour. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 12, 1901, pp. 
123-139. Denison, F. Napier, The Great Lakes as a sensitive barometer: Canadian Eng., Oct. -Nov., 
1*97; Secondary undulations oi tide gages, Proc. Can. Inst., n. s., vol. 1, 1897, pp. 28-31; The Great 
Lakes as a sensitive barometer: Proc. Can. Inst., n. s., vol. 1, 1897, pp. 55-63; The origin of ocean tidal 
secondary undulations: Proc. Can. Inst., n. s., vol. 1, 1897, pp. 134-135. 



76 FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER LEVEL IN WELLS. 

The secondary oscillations in the tide curve at Swansea, England, have a time 
interval of fifteen to twenty minutes; at Malta, twenty-one minutes; and at Sydney, 
twenty-six minutes; while Denison has observed on Lake Huron oscillations with 
periods of fourteen, eighteen, twenty-two, and forty-five minutes. As* no such 
secondary tidal oscillations have been observed near Long Island, and as the Hewlett 
well is at such a distance from the coast that it is not affected by tides 4 feet high, 
these oscillations are clearly not of transmitted ocean origin. Denison' s observations 
led him to the conclusion that many of the secondary oscillations are due to baro- 
metric fluctuations, and the occurrence of these fluctuations in wells must be regarded 
as strong confirmatory evidence of his conclusion. 

Besides these fluctuations with a period of twenty minutes, there are several other 
minor vibrations with smaller amplitudes and periods; one series seems to have a 
period of five or six minutes, but is not very sharply defined. 

In the wells atLynbrook (p. 23) minor fluctuations with periods of forty and eighty 
minutes have been clearly recognized in a mass of still smaller fluctuations. 

FLUCTUATIONS AT MILLBURN, N. Y. 

Extremely irregular fluctuations with a range of as much as 1 inch were obtained 
from a well at Millburn, N. Y. (PI. V, p. 22). These are quite different from any 
of the other curves obtained and no cause can be assigned for these irregularities. 
Not the least strange part of the curve is that its general character changes sharply 
on July 29. (See discussion, pp. 22-23.). 

FLUCTUATIONS AT URISINO STATION, jSTEW SOUTH WALES. 

The fluctuations reported by Professor David « at Urisino Station, between Wanaar- 
ing and Milparinka, in the northwest corner of New South Wales, 200 miles from the 
ocean, are unique. Two subartesian wells, one 1,680 and the other 2,000 feet deep, 
in which the water rises to within 15 or 20 feet of the surface, show regular rhyth- 
mical pulsations with a range of 4 to 5 feet every two hours. That is, there are here 
six almost equal "tides" of large size every twenty -four hours. Prof. Charles S. 
Slichter has suggested the very probable explanation that the fluctuations are due 
to a sort of periodic geyser phenomena. This is quite competent to produce the fluc- 
tuations observed and the high temperature of the water in this basin lends consider- 
able color to the suggestion. 

a David, T. W. E., Notes on artesian water in New South Wales and Queensland: Jour, and Proc. 
Royal Soc. New South Wales for 1893, vol. 27, pp. 429-430. 






I N DEX. 



A. Page. 

Agawam, N. Y., pumping at, effect of 71 

Agram, Hungary, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 

Air. fluctuations produced by pressure trans- 
mitted through 7-8,24, 12-43 

Airy, G. B., on minor tidal fluctuations at 

Malta 75 

Alfriston, England, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 

Alrnenderes River, Cuba, fluctuations in 

springs produced by 63 

Aller River. Germany, well fluctuations 

produced by 60 

Ann Arbor. Mich., annual and secular fluc- 
tuations in well at 40 

Annual fluctuations, character and cause 

of 29-34 

■ latcs of maximum and minimum, fac- 
tors affecting 34-37 

diagrams showing 30,31,32 (PI. IX), 39 

Arkansas, well fluctuations produced by 

Red River in 63 

Artesian well developments, effect of, on 

water level 74 

Atwell, Joseph, on fluctuating springs in 

Devonshire 53 

Auchincloss, W. S., on annual and secular 

fluctuations at Bryn Mawr 38, 51 

Avalon, X. J., tidal fluctuations in well at. 69 

B. 

Baden, Austria, annual fluctuations in well 

at 41 

Bailly, , on tidal well at Lille, France.. 64,67 

Barbour, E. H., on blowing wells in Ne- 
braska 53 

on annual well fluctuations in Ne- 
braska 51 

Barometric changes, effects of. 7-8, 24-25, 52-54, 76 

effects of, bibliography of 53-54 

diagram showing 24 (PI. VI) 

Barren Island (Andaman Sea), tidal wells 

on 64,68 

Berlin, Germany, annual fluctuations in 

well at • 40 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

at, figure showing 29 

Bettes, C. R., aid of 18-19 

Bibliography of fluctuations, due to baro- 
metric changes 53-54 

due to ocean tides 67-69 

due to rainfall 51-52 

due to rivers 62-63 

due to temperature 59 



Page. 
Blowing wells, occurrence and bibliogra- 
phy of 53 

I '.on i Kay, India, tidal wells near 64, 67-68 

Bowman, Isaiah, well observations by 13,16 

Braithwaite, Frederick, on tidal-well fluctu- 
ations at London 67 

Bremen, Germany, annual fluctuations in 

well at 40 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

at. figure showing 29 

Brentwood. X. Y., barograph record at, fig- 
ure showing 18 (PI. Ill), 

22 (PI. V),24 (PI. VI) 

observations at 27 

rainfall record at, figure showing. 18 (PL III), 
22 (PI. V),24(P1. VI) 
Bronx Park, N. Y., soil temperatures at, 

observations on 57, 58 

Brooklyn waterworks, effect of pumping at, 

on stream flow 73 

Briinn, Austria, annual fluctuations in well 

at 40 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

at, figure showing 29 

Bryn Mawr, Pa., annual and secular fluc- 
tuations in well at 40,51 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

at. figure showing 30 

ground-water curves at 38 

figures showing 30, 31 

Buckland, Doctor., on London well fluctua- 
tions 62 

C. 

("ache la Poudre River, Colo., diurnal fluc- 
tuations of 59 

rise of ground water along 72 

Caleves, Switzerland, percolation experi- 
ments at 46 

Callender, H. L., on soil temperatures 58 

Capillarity, effect of, in producing well 

fluctuations 8, 42-43, 57 

effect of surface changes on 43 

Carpenter, L. G., on fluctuations in Cache 

la Poudre River, Colo 59 

on rise in ground water along Cache la 

Poudre River, Colo 72 

Caterham, England, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 

Caverns, tidal fluctuations transmitted 

t h n >ugh 62-64 

Celle, Germany, well fluctuations produced 

by Aller River at 60-61 

Charnock, Charles, lysimeter experiments 

at Ferrybridge by 46 

77 



78 



INDEX. 



Page. 
Chelgrove, England, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 

Cheshire, England, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 

Christie, James, on tidal fluctuations in 

wells '. 67 

Cities, effect of, on water table 74-75 

Citizens Water Supply Co., wells of, fluctua- 
tions in, plate showing . . 26 (PI. VII) 
wellsof,locationof,mapshowing. 26 (PI. VII) 

observations on 25-26 

Clutterbuck, James, on lysimeters 48-49 

on tidal wells in England 67 

on well fluctuations at London 51, 62, 74 

Cochituate, Lake, Mass., basin of, rainfall 

and run-off in 50 

Colne River, England, well fluctuations at 

London due to 62 

Colorado, annual fluctuations in infiltration 

gallery in 51 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

in, relations of 43 

ground-water fluctuations in 43, 59 

Connecticut River, Conn., basin of, rainfall 

and run-off in 50 

Consolidated Ice Co., Huntington, N. Y., 

observations on well of 13 

Cretaceous clays, lack of continuity of, on 

Long Island 10 

flgureshowing 9 

Cretaceous sands, figure showing 9 

water in 10, 19 

Croton River, N. Y., basin of, rainfall and 

run-off in 50 

Cuba, spring fluctuations produced by Al- 

menderes River in 63 

Cultivation, changes in ground-water level 

due to 70-71 

Czernowitz, Austria, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 



D. 



Dal ton, John, lysimeter experiments of 44-45 

Dams, changes in ground-water level due 

to 72 

Darwin, G. H., on elastic deformation of the 

earth 55-66 

David, T. W. E., on well fluctuations in New 

South Wales 76 

Dawson, W. Bell, on secondary tidal fluctua- 
tions 75 

Debreczin, Hungary, annual fluctuations in 

well at .- 41 

Deformation, elastic, of earth, G. H. Dar- 
win on 65-66 

Deformation, plastic, of earth, well fluctua- 
tions due to 8, 28, 

42-43, 62-63, 65-68, 74-75 

Denizet, , on spring fluctuations at 

Voize, France, due to baromet- 
ric changes 53 

Denison, F. Napier, on secondary fluctua- 
tions of Lake Huron 75-76 

Denver Water Co., infiltration gallery of, 

fluctuations in 51 



Desaguliers, J. T., on tidal fluctuations in 

England 67 

Dickinson, John, lysimeter of 44-45 

Dickinson, John, and Evans, John, percola- 
tion experiments of . 32-34, 37, 45-46, 48 
percolation experiments of, diagram 

showing 32 

Discharge, point of, distance from, relations 

of fluctuations and 38, 49, 51 

rate of, fluctuations due to 57, 61, 63-64 

Douglas, J. N., on tidal well in Kent, Eng- 
land 67 

Douglaston, N. Y., marsh near, description 

of 25-26 

marsh near, map showing 26 (PL VII) 

mud volcanoes near 25-^6 

wells at, description of 25 

fluctuations in 26 

figure showing 28 (PI. VIII) 

lag in 25, 66 

location of, map showing 26 (PI. VII) 

observations on 10, 25-26, 66 

errors in 18, 26 

Drainage, changes in water table due to. . . 70 

Dubois, H. J., well record by 12 

Duff, A. W., on secondary tidal fluctuations 

in New Brunswick 75 



E. 



Earthquakes, changes in water table due 

to... 70 

East Rockaway Inlet, tide curves at, figure 

showing 20 (PI. IV) 

Eastdean, England, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 

Ebermeyer, Dr. E., on forest litter 71 

on lysimeters 48 

Elbe River, Germany, artesian wells in bed 

Of :.... 62 

Emery, F. E., on annual fluctuations in well 

at Geneva, N. Y 51 

England, annual fluctuations in wells in. . . 41, 51 
barometric fluctuations in springs and 

wells in 53-54 

blowing well in 53 

decrease of head in artesian wells in. . . 74 

fluctuations due to rivers in 62 

percolation experiments in 32-34, 44-47 

tidal fluctuations in wells in 64, 67-69 

Erosion, changes in water table due to. 69 

Europe, annual and secular fluctuations in 

wells in 34-35,38,40-41,51,61-62 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

in, figures showing. 29,32 (PI. IX), 62 
Evans and Dickinson. See Dickinson and 
Evans. 

Evaporation, loss by 50 

Evaporation and rainfall, fluctuations due 

to 29-42 



F. 



Farrley, T., on blowing well in England. . . 53 

Fenhurst, N. Y. See Hewlett, N. Y. 

Fires, effect of, on water level 75 



INDKX. 



79 



Page. 
Flood Bows, contribution by ground water 

to 8, 12,49 

definition of 19 

effect of showers on 12 

Si i also Stream flow. 

Floral Park, N. Y., observations at 27 

rainfall records at, figures showing. . . 18 i PI. 
III),-.'.' il'l. Vi,-ji (PI. VI) 
thermograph records at, figures show- 
ing.. 18(P1. [II),22(P1.V),24(P1.VI) 
Fluctuations in ground-water level, amount 

of 7,38 11. 51 

causes of 7,28-76 

classification of 28 

- also Annual fluctuations; Artesian 
wells; Bibliography; Capillarity; 
cities; Dams; Deformation; For- 
ests: Geysers; Geologic changes; 
Irrigation: Pumping: Rainfall; 
Secular fluctuations: Showers; 
Soil; Streams; Tides. 

Forest, effect of, on ground-water level 71 

Fortier, Samuel, on underflow 51 

France, barometric fluctuations in springs 

in : 53 

forests in, effect of, on ground-water 

level 71 

percolation experiments in 45 

tidal fluctuations in wells in 02, 64, 67-69 

Frankfurt, Germany, annual fluctuations in 

well at 40 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

in wells at, figures showing 29 

Freund, Adolf, report of, on Vienna water- 
works 51 

Frazer, Persiflor, on tidal well at Seagirt, 

N.J 68 

Friez gage, description of 18 

Fuller, M. L., on spring fluctuations in 

Cuba, due to river changes 63 

Fulton, Ark., fluctuations due to stream 

flow in well in 63 

G. 

Gages, direct-reading, description of 10-11 

observations with 10-17 

self-recording, descr'ntion of 17-18 

observations with 18-26 

Galleries, infiltration, changes in water 

table due to 72-73 

Gasparin, Doctor, lysimeter experiments 

of 45 

Genesee River, N. Y., basin of, rainfall and 

run-off in 50 

Geneva, N. Y., annual fluctuations in well 

at 40,51 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

in well at, figure showing 30 

Geneva, Switzerland, percolation experi- 
ments at 45 

Geologic causes, changes in ground-water 

level due to 69-70 

Geological Survey, U. S., observations by. . . 10-27 

Georgia, tidal fluctuations in wells in 68 

Gerhardt, P., on annual fluctuations 51 

on fluctuations due to stream flow 63 



Pag 
Germany, annual and secular fluctuations 

in wells in 10 

percolation experiments in 16 17 

well fluctuations due to streams in 60-62 

Geysers; well fluctuations due to 70,76 

Gilbert and I. awes. Sei La wesand Gilbert 
Gorlitz, Germany, percolation experimi nl 

at 40 

Gough, John, on barometric fluctuations in 

Yorkshire wells 53 

Graz, Austria, annual fluctuations in well 

at 10 

Greaves, Charles, percolation experiments 

of 32-33, 16, 18 

Green, II., gages of , description of 18 

Ground water, definition of 12 

topography and, relations of 38,69-70 

See also Bibliography; Capillarity; Cities; 
Dams; Deformation; Forests; 
Flood flow; Geysers; Geologic 
changes: Human agencies; Irri- 
gation; Pumping; Rainfall; 
Showers; Streams; Stream flow; 
Temperatures; Tides. 
Ground-water curves, relation of rainfall 

curves and, figures showing 18 

(PI. Ill), 22 i PLY), 24 (PI. YI), 
29, 30, 31, 32 (PI. IX), 36, 39 
Ground-water divide, distance from, effect 

of, on fluctuations 38, 49 

figure showing 9 

H. 

Hallan de Roucroy, on spring fluctuations 

in Iceland 04 

tidal fluctuations at Lille, France. . . 68 
Harris, G. D., on blowing wells in Louisi- 
ana 53 

on relations of Mississippi River to well 

fluctuations 03 

Headdon, W. P., on effect of showers on 

ground water 43, 51 

Hemel Hempstead, England, annual per- 
colation and rainfall curves at, 

figure showing 32 

percolation experiments at 32-34, 45-46, 48 

Henry, E., and Tolsky, A., on relations of 

forests and ground water 71 

Hess, , on fluctuations due to stream 

flow 60 

Hertfordshire, England, annual fluctuations 

in well in 41 

Hewlett, N. Y., wells at, description of 18-19 

wells at, location of, maps showing 9 

(PI. I), 16 (PL II) 

observations on 18-19, 75-76 

pumping of, effect of 74 

effect of, figure showing.. 18 (PL III) 
tidal fluctuation in, figure showing. 18 
(PL III) 
Hicksville, N. Y., annual fluctuations in 

wells at 40 

Hudson River, N. Y., basin of, rainfall and 

run-off in 50 

Human agencies, ground-water fluctua- 
tions due to 70-75 



80 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Humus/ absorptive capacity of 71 

Huntington, N. Y., wells at, description of. 10-13 

wells at, location of 11 

location of, figure showing 11 

observations on 10-13 

tidal fluctuation in, figure showing. 12 

lag in 10,06 

Huntington Light and Power Co., well of, 

location of, figure showing 11 

well of, observations on 10-13 

record of 12 

Huron, Lake, secondary tidal oscillations 

on , 76 

Hutton, P. W., on tidal fluctuations at New 

Brighton, England 68 

I. 

Iceland, springs in, tidal fluctuations of... 64,68 
Infiltration from rivers, fluctuations due to. 60-61 
Infiltration galleries, changes in water table 

due to 51,72-73 

Inglis, Gavin, on tidal fluctuations in springs 

in Yorkshire 68 

Innsbruck, Austria, annual fluctuations in 

well at 40 

Irrigation, changes in water table due to . . 72 

J. 

Jaegle, W. C, well record by 20 

Japan, barometric fluctuations in well in.. 54 
Jgvington, England, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 

Josephstadt, Austria, annual fluctuations 

in well at 40 

K. 

King, P. H., citations of . . 42-13,51-56,63,68-69,75 

evaporation experiments by 49 

Klagenfurt, Austria, annual fluctuations in 

well at 40 

Knightly, T. P., on barometric fluctuations 

in Derbyshire wells 53 

Krakau, Austria, annual fluctuations in 

well at 40 

L. 

Lag in well fluctuations 13, 

17, 19, 21-22, 24, 34-36, 60-62, 64-66 

Lake level, changes in, effect of, on water 

table 63,69 

Lane, A. C, on blowing well in Michigan. . 53 

Lansing, Mich., annual fluctuations in well 

at 40 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

at, figure showing ' 30 

Latham, Baldwin, on barometric fluctua- 
tions in springs in England 53 

Lawes, John, and Gilbert, J. H., percolation 

experiments of 32-34, 37, 47-48 

percolation experiments of, figure show- 
ing 32 

Leakage from rivers, effect of, on water 

level 61-63 

Leitha River, Austria, effect of, on ground 

water 35, 61-62 



Lille, France, tidal wells at 62,64,67-69 

Lincoln, Nebr., soil temperatures at, observa- 

• tions on 57 

Liverpool, England, barometric and tidal 

fluctuations in well near 54, 68-69 

Liznar, Joseph, on periodic fluctuations in 

wells 52 

London, England, annual and secular fluc- 
tuations in wells at 41, 51 

barometric fluctuations in wells at 53 

diminution of artesian head at 74 

fluctuations due to rivers at 62 

percolation experiments near 46 

tidal fluctuations in wells at 67 

Long Beach, N. Y., well at, description 

of 19-20 

well at, location of, maps showing. . 9 (PI. I), 

16 (PI. II) 

observations on 10, 19-22 

errors in 18 

record of '. 20 

tidal fluctuations in 18, 21-22, 66 

figure showing 20 (PI. IV) 

lag in 19, 66 

Long Island, blowing wells on 53 

ground water on, source of 10 

hydrologic conditions on 9-10- 

figure showing 9 

similarity of, to those at Wiener 

Neustadt 35 

irrigation on 72 

map of southern part of 16 (PL II) 

map of western end of 9 (PI. I) 

observations on 10-27 

ponds on, effect of 72 

pumping on, effect of 73 

rainfall curveson.figuresshowing. 18(P1. Ill), 
22 (PI. V), 24 (PI. VI), 30,36, 37,39 

section of 9 

secular fluctuations on 37-38 

south side of, rainfall and run-off on. . . 50 

stream flow on 10, 50 

topography of 9 

underflow on 73-74 

wells on, fluctuations in 10-27, 

35, 37-38, 40, 42-44, 49, 52-53, 57-59, 
62, 66, 74-76. 

fluctuations in, figures showing 12, 

16,18 (PL III), 20 (PL IV), 22 (PL 
V), 24 (PL VI), 26 (PL VII), 28 (PL 
VIII), 30, 36, 39. 

observations on 9-27 

Louisiana, blowing wells in 53 

fluctuations of wells in, due toMississippi 

River 63 

Lueger, Otto, on annual fluctuations in 

wells 52 

on barometric fluctuations in wells and 

springs 54 

Lynbrook, N. Y., wells at, description of . . . 23 

wells at, fluctuations in 22, 

42-43, 49, 52, 57-59, 62, 76 

location of, map showing 9 (PI. I), 

16 (PL II) 

observations on 23-25, 57-59 

record of 23 



INDKX. 



81 



I'age. 

Lyalmeters, descriptions of •"'-'. 1 1 it 

objections to 44,48 19 

observations with 32,34, n 19 

results of, figure showing 32 



M. 



McCallie, S. W., on tidal well fluctuations 

in Georgia (>S 

McDougal, I). T., on soil temperatures 57-58 

Madison, Wis., temperature and well fluc- 
tuations at 54-57 

well at, fluctuations in, due to showers. 42 

fluctuations in, figure showing 56 

record of 5G 

Maghull, England, tidal and barometric 

fluctuations in well at 54,68-69 

Malabar coast, tidal wells on 64,67 

Mallet. F. R., on tidal fluctuations in wells 

in Wales 68 

Malta, .secondary tidal oscillations at 76 

Manchester, England, percolation experi- 
ments at 45 

Mandan, H. G., on tidal wells 64,68 

Map of Douglaston and vicinity 26 

of Oyster Bay an d vicinity 13, 14 

of property of Huntington Light and 

Power Company and vicinity .. 11 

of southern Long Island 16 (PI. II) 

of western Long Island 9 (PL I) 

Maurice, , lysimeter experiments of.... 45 

Mead, Elwood, gage of, description of 18 

Merrick, X. Y., pumping at, effect of 74 

Mesilla Park, N. Mex., underflow at 13, 62 

Meyer, Cord, aid of 25 

Meyer, J. E., aid of 25 

Michigan, annual and secular fluctations 

in wells in 40 

blowing well in 53 

rainfall and water-level curves in, fig- 
ures showing 30 

water level in, observations on 52 

Mill ponds, effect of, on ground-water 

level 72 

Millburn, N. Y., well at, fluctuations in 22- 

23, 38, 40, 76 
well at, fluctuations in, figures show- 
ing 22 (PL V) 30,39 

location of, map showing 9 (PL I), 

16 | PL II) 

observations on 10, 22-23 

rainfall and water-level curves in, 

figures showing 30, 39 

Milne, John, on barometric fluctuations in 

well in Japan 54 

Moore, H. C, on tidal fluctuations in wells. 68 
Mud volcanoes, location of, near Douglas- 
ton, map showing 26 (PL VII) 

occurrence of, near Douglaston 25-26 

Munich, Germany, annual fluctuations in 

well at 40 

annual rainfall and water-level curves 

in well at, figure showing 29 

percolation experiments at 47 

Muskingum River, Ohio, basin of, rainfall 

and run-off in 50 



Muskingum River < >hio < Continued. 

basin of, underflow in 10 

Mystic Lake, Mass.. basin of. rainfall and 

run -oil' in 50 



\. 



Nashua River, Mass., basin of, rainfall ami 

run-off in 50 

Nebraska, annual II net nations in wells in.. ■•! 

blowing wells in 53 

soil t em ] 'em tu res a t, observations on . . 57 
Neshaminy Creek, Pa., basin of, rainfall 

and run-off in 50 

New Inlet, X. Y., tide curve at 22 (PI. V) 

\e» Jersey, annual fluctuations in wells in. 52 

artesian wells in, fluctuations in 69 

tidal fluctuations in 66-69 

New York, annual fluctuations in well at 

Geneva 51 

soil temperatures at Bronx Park, obser- 
vations on 57-58 

See also Long Island. 
New York City commission on additional 
water supply, observations of, 

on Long Island 27 

observations of, results of, figure show- 
ing 18 (PL III) , 

22 (PL IV), 26 (PL VII), 36 
Newark, N, J., residual-mass curves of ram- 
fall at 37 

Newell, F. H., aid of 17-18 

North Allerton, England, blowing well at . 53 

O. 

Oliver, William, on minor periodic fluctua- 
tions of well in England 54 

(•range, France percolation experiments at. 45 
( itotsky, P., on forests and ground water .. 71 
Oyster Bay, N. Y., sections at, figures show- 

ing 14,15 

wells at, location of, figures showing. . . 13, 14 

observations on 15-17, 66 

tidal fluctuations in 17 

figure showing 17 

P. 

Paleozoic rocks, occurrence of 10 

occurrence of, figure showing 9 

Pearson, W., on tidal-well fluctuations in 

England 68 

Pennsylvania, annual fluctuations in well 

in 51 

Pensacola, Fla., fluctuations in wells at 67-69 

Pequanock River, Conn., basin of, rainfall 

and run-off in 50 

Percolation, amount of, estimation of. 32-37, 44-51 
rainfall and, relations of, figure show- 
ing 32 

stream flow and, relations of 49-50 

Perim Island (Red Sea), tidal wells on 64, 68 

Perkiomen Creek, Pa., basin of, rainfall and 

run-off in 50 

Philadelphia, Pa., rainfall curve at 31,37 



IRR 155—06- 



82 



INDEX. 



Plastic deformation. See Deformation, plas- 
tic. 
Pleistocene gravels, of Long Island, occur- 
rence of 10 

Pliny the Elder, on barometric fluctuations 

in wells in Italy 54 

on temperature fluctuations in wells in 

Italy , 59 

on tidal fluctuations in wells in Italy . . 68 
Pliny the Younger, on barometric fluctua- 
tions in wells in Italy 54 

Point of discharge. See Discharge, 

Poisenille, — , on temperature and viscosity. 58 

Prag, Hungary, annual fluctuations in well 

at 40 

Pressure, transmitted, fluctuations pro- 
duced by 7-8, 

21, 28, 42-43, 62-63, 65-68, 74-75 

Pumping, effect of, on ground water 52, 73 

effect of, on ground water, plate show- 
ing 18 (PI. Ill) 

on stream flow 73 

Purdue University, lysimeter experiments 

at 43 



Queens .County Water Co., wells of . . . 18-19, 23-25 
wells of, fluctuations in, figures show- 
ing 18 (PI. Ill), 24 (PI. VI) 

R. 
Railway trains, effect of, on water table ... 42, 75 
Rainfall, contribution to ground water by. 44-51 

effect of, on ground water 7, 24, 29-52 

excess of, effect of 37-38 

effect of, figure showing 34, 36, 37 

figures showing 18 (PI. Ill), 

22 (PI. V),24(P1. VI), 
29, 30, 31, 32, 36, 37, 39 

fluctuations due to 7, 24, 29-52 

bibliography of 51-52 

percolation of, amount of . 38 

effect of 44 

observations on 32-34 

residual-mass curves of, figures show- 
ing 32,36,37,39 

Statistics of 40-41, 45-47, 50 

stream flow and, relations of. 7-8, 10, 24, 49-51 
See also Showers. 
Rainfall curves, relation of ground-water 

curves and, figures showing.. 18 (PI. 
Ill), 22 (PI. V), 24 (PI. 
VI), 29, 30, 31,32,36,39 

Rathbun, F. D., work of 18 (PI. Ill), 

20 (PI. IV), 22 (PI. V) 
Red River, Ark. , fluctuations in wells along. 63 
Residual mass rainfall curves, figures show- 
ing .... . 32, 36, 37, 39 

Riegler, , on forest litter 71 

Rio Grande, relation between water table 

and bed of 62 

Risler, , lysimeter experiments by 46 

Rivers. See Streams. 

Riviere, , on tidal fluctuations in spring 

at Givre 68 

Robert, E., on tidal fluctuations in Iceland 

springs 68 



Roberts, Isaac, on barometric fluctuations 

in well at Maghull 54 

on tidal fluctuations in well at Maghull. 68-69 
Rothamsted, England, percolation experi- 
ments at 32-34, 48 

percolation and rainfall curves at, fig- 
ure showing 32 

Run-off, statistics of 50 

See also Stream flow; Flood flow. 



Salbach, B., on artesian wells in Elbe River. 62 
Salt water, expulsion of, from formations 

of Long Island 10 

infiltration of, prevention of 64 

Salzburg, Austria, annual fluctuations at . . 40 
annual rainfall and water-level curves 

at, figure showing 29 

observations at 29 

Saturation, zone of, depth of soil above, 
effect" of, on ground-water fluc- 
tuations 34-37 

Schrieber, Adolf, well of, observations on.. 22-23 

Seagirt, N. J., tidal wells at 64, 68 

Secular fluctuations, amount of 40 

diagrams showing 32, 39 

occurrence of 37-38 

range of 40 

Sedimentation, changes in water table due 

to 63, 69 

Seepage, effects of _ 61-63 

Shelf ord, W., on tidal fluctuations in Lin- 
colnshire wells 67-68 

Sherlock, Kans., fluctuation due to temper- 
ature change at 59 

ground- water movement at 60-61 

Showers, effect of, on wells 35-37, 42-44, 51 

effect of, on wells, diagrams showing... 24 
(PI. VI), 36, 39 

Sidney, secondary tidal oscillations at 76 

Silt in rivers, effect of, on ground water 61, 70 

Sinclair, W. F., on tidal fluctuations in Bom- 
bay wells 68 

Siphons, natural, hypothetical, question of. 53,70 

Slichter, C. S., aid of 17-18 

on fluctuations in ground water due to 

stream flow 62-63 

on ground-water movements in Kansas. 60 

on rise of ground water in Kansas 71 

on underflow on Long Island 73 

on well fluctuations 54 

on well fluctuations in New SouthWales. 76 
Soil, air in, pressure transmitted to ground 

water by 7-8, 24, 42-43 

depth of, effect of, on ground-water fluc- 
tuations 34-37 

temperature of, relations of well fluctu- 
ations and 54-59 

Solution, changes in water table due to 69 

Soyka, Isidor, figures by 29 

on annual fluctuations 52 

on fluctuations due to rivers 63 

Spear, W. E., figures by 36,37 

observations by 27, 35, 50 

on flood flow 10 



INDEX. 



83 



Page. 

spear, w. E.— Continued. 

on fluctuations on Long Island 52 

due to pumping 78 

Springs, intermitting, occurrence <>f 58, 70 

Still box. use of ,; l 

Storer, John, on tidal fluctuations in wells 

in Yorkshire 68 

stream flow, effect of pumping on 73 

estimation of percolation from 49-50 

ground water ami, relations of 7-8,49-50 

rain fall ami, rela I [l >nsof 7-8, 24, 49-50 

Si '" also Flood flow. 

streams, fluctuations in wells due to 59-63 

t! net nations in wells due to, bibliography 

of - 62-63 

infiltration from 61 -62 

silt in, effect of 61-62 

fluctuations in springs due to 63 

plastic deformation due to 62 

Streams, silted, relation of ground-water 

level and 61-62 

Subsurface dams, effect of, on ground-water 

level 72 

Sudbury River, Mass., basin of, rainfall and 

run-off in 50 

Sussex, England, annual fluctuations in 

wells in 41 

Swansea, secondary tidal oscillations at ... 76 
Swezey, G. D., on soil temperatures in Ne- 
braska 57 

Switzerland, percolation experiments in.. 45-46 
Szegedin, Hungary, annual fluctuations in 

well at 41 

T. 

Temperature changes, depth and, relation 

of 57-58 

effect of, on well.fluetuations. 8,24-25, 51,54-59 

bibliography of 59 

figure showing 58 

nontransmission of, figure showing. 56 
Tharoud, Germany, percolation experi- 
ments at 46 

Thomassey, Raymond, on seepage from 

Mississippi River 63 

Tides, effect of, on still box 61 

effect of, on well fluctuations.. 8, 10-26,63-69 

bibliography of 67-69 

observations on 10-26 

Todd, J. E., on annual fluctuations 52 

on barometric fluctuations 54 

on fluctuations in South Dakota wells 

due to Missouri River 63 

Tolsky and Henry. See Henry and Tolsky. 
Topography, relations of ground-watertable 

and 38 

Trautwine, J. C, jr., on tidal fluctuations 

in wells 68 

Tribus, L. L., on fluctuations in New Jersey 

wells due to rainfall 52 

on tidal fluctuations in Florida 68-69 

Trieste, Austria, annual fluctuations in 

wells at 40 

Tybee Island, Georgia, tidal fluctuations in 

well at 68 



Pagi 

Underflow, loss by >'• 

United States, rainfall and ground-water 

curves in, figures showing..:... 30,81 

UrUSinO Station, New South Wales, well 

1] net nations at 76 

V. 

Valley Stream, X. Y., observations on well 

fluctuation at 10 

See also Lynbrook and Hewlett. 
Van Nostrand, D. L., on depth of mud near 

Douglasti m 25 

Veatch, A.i'., mi Arkansas and Louisiana 

fluctuations due to streams 63 

on Long Island blowing wells 53 

Vento, Cuba, spring fluctuations at, due to 

Almenderes River 63 

Ventor, M. J., on tidal fluctuations in well 

at 69 

Vermeule, C. C, on tidal fluctuations in 

wells in New Jersey 69 

Yon Mollendorf, G., lysimeter experiments 

by 46 

\Y. 

Wales, tidal fluctuations in 68 

Ward. L. B.. on pumping on Long Island.. 73 
Wells. See Annual fluctuations: Artesian 
wells; Bibliography; Capillar- 
ity; Cities; Dams: Deforma- 
tion; Forests; Geysers; Geologic 
changes; Irrigation; Pumping; 
Rainfall; Secular fluctuations; 
Showers; Soil; Streams; Tides. 
Wells, blowing, occurrence and bibliogra- 
phy of 53 

Wells, sea-coast, peculiarities of 64,67-68 

Whitney, F. L.. work of 18 (PI. Ill), 

22 (PI. V),24 (PI. YD, 26,28 (PI. VIII) 
Wiener Neustadt, Austria, water level at, 
compared with that on Long 

Island 35 

water level at, fluctuations of 38,41,51 

fluctuations of, figure showing 32, 

(PL IX) 

observations on 34-35, 38 

percolation and, relations of 41 

Wisconsin, barometric fluctuations in wells 

in 53-57 

Woldrich, J. N., on effect of rainfall on 

ground water 29, 52 

Wolff, H. C, observations by 59 

Wollny, E., lysimeter experiments by 47 

on forest litter 71 

Wood, J. G., on tidal fluctuations 69 

Woolman, Lewis, on tidal fluctuations in 

New Jersey wells 69 

Y. 

Y'orkshire, England, percolation experi- 
ments in 46 

Y'oung, G. and J. Bird, on tidal fluctuations 

in Y'orkshire wells 69 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL 

SURVEY. 

[Water-Supply Paper No. 155.] 

The serial publications of the United States Geological Survey consist of ( 1 ) Annual 
Reports, (2) Monographs, (3) Professional Papers, (4) Bulletins, (5) Mineral 
Resources, (6) Water-Supply and Irrigation Papers, (7) Topographic Atlas of United 
States — folios and separate sheets thereof, (8) Geologic Atlas of the United States — 
folios thereof. The classes numbered 2, 7, and 8 are sold at cost of publication; the 
others are distributed free. A circular giving complete lists may be had on application. 

Most of the above publications may be obtained or consulted in the following ways: 

1. A limited number are delivered to the Director of the Survey, from whom they 
may be obtained, free of charge (except classes 2, 7, and 8), on application. 

2. A certain number are delivered to Senators and Representatives in Congress for 
distribution. 

3. Other copies are deposited with the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, 
D. G, from whom they may be had at prices slightly above cost. 

4. Copies of all Government publications are furnished to the principal public 
libraries in the large cities throughout the United States, where they may be con- 
sulted by those interested. 

The Professional Papers, Bulletins, and Water-Supply Papers treat of a variety ol 
subjects, and the total number issued is large. They have therefore been classified 
into the following series: A, Economic geology; B, Descriptive geology; C, System- 
atic geology and paleontology; D, Petrography and mineralogy; E, Chemistry and 
physics; F, Geography; G, Miscellaneous; H, Forestry; I, Irrigation, J, Water stor- 
age; K, Pumping water; L, Quality of water; M, General hydrographic investiga- 
tions; N, Water power; O, Underground waters; P, Hydrographic progress reports. 
This paper is the fifty-second in Series O, the complete list of which follows (PP=Pro- 
fessional Paper; B=Bulletin; WS= Water-Supply Paper) : 

SERIES O, UNDERGROUND WATERS. 

WS 4. A reconnaissance in southeastern Washington, by I. C Russell. 1S97. 96 pp., 7 pis (Out of 

stock.) 
WS 6. Underground waters of southwestern Kansas, by Erasmus Haworth. 1897. 65 pp., 12 pis. 

(Out of stock.) 
WS 7. Seepage waters of northern Utah, by Samuel Fortier. 1897. 50 pp., 3 pis (Out of stock.) 
WS 12. Underground waters of southeastern Nebraska, by N. H. Darton. 1898. 56 pp., 21 pis. (Out 

of stock.) 
WS 21. Wells of northern Indiana, by Frank Leverett. 1899. 82 pp., 2 pis. (Out of stock.) 
WS 26 Wells of southern Indiana (continuation of No. 21), by Frank Leverett. 1899. 61 pp. (Out 

of stock.) 
W's ho. Waterresourcesof the lower peninsula of Michigan, by A. C. Lane. 1899. 97 pp., 7 pis. (Out 

of stock.) 
WS 31. Lower Michigan mineral waters, by A. C. Lane. 1899. 97 pp., 4 pis. (Out of stock.) 
WS 31. Geology and water resources of a portion of southeastern South Dakota, by J. E. Todd. 1900. 

31 pp., 19 pis. 
WS 53. Geology and water resources of Nez Perces County, Idaho, Pt. I, by I. C. Russell. 1901. 86 

pp., 10 pis. (Out of stock.) 
WS 54. Geology and water resources of Nez Perces County, Idaho, Pt. II, by I. C. Russell. 1901. 

87-141 pp. (Out of stock.) 

I 



II SEEIES LIST. 

WS 55. Geology and water resources of a portion of Yakima County, Wash., by G. 0. Smith. 1901. 

: 68 pp., 7 pis. (Out of stock.) 
WS 57. Preliminary list of deep borings in the United States, Pt. I, by N. H. Darton. 1902. 60 pp. 

(Out of stock.) 
WS 59. Development and application of water in southern California, Pt. I, by J. B. Lippincott. 1902. 

95 pp., 11 pis. (Out of stock.) 
WS 60. Development and application of water in southern California, Pt. II, by J. B. Lippincott. 

1902. 96-140 pp. (Out of stock.) 
WS 61. Preliminary list of deep borings in the United States, Pt. II, by N. H. Darton. 1902. 67 pp. 

(Out of stock.) 
WS 67. The motions of underground waters, by C. S. Slichter. 1902. 106 pp., 8 pis. (Out of stock.) 
B 199. Geology and water resources of the Snake River Plains of Idaho, by I. C. Russell. 1902. 192 

pp., 25 pis. 
WS 77. Water resources of Molokai, Hawaiian Islands, by Waldemar Lindgren. 1903. 62 pp., 4 pis. 
WS 78. Preliminary report on artesian basin in southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon, by I. C. 

Russell. 1903. 53 pp., 2 pis. 
PP 17. Preliminary report on the geology and water resources of Nebraska west of the one hundred 

and third meridian, by N. H. Darton. 1903. 6§ pp., 43 pis. 
WS 90. Geology and water resources of a part of the lower James River Valley, South Dakota, by 

J. E. Todd and C. M. Hall. 1904. 47 pp., 23 pis. 
WS 101. Underground waters of southern Louisiana, by G. D. Harris, with discussions of their uses for 

water supplies and for rice irrigation, by M. L. Puller. 1904. 98 pp., 11 pis. 
WS 102. Contributions to the hydrology of eastern United States, 1903, by M. L. Puller. 1904. 522 pp. 
WS 104. Underground waters of Gila Valley, Arizona, by W. T. Lee. 1904. 71 pp., 5 pis. ■ 
WS 110. Contributions to the hydrology of eastern United States, 1904; M. L. Puller, geologist in 

charge. 1904. 211 pp., 5 pis. 
PP 32. Geology and underground water resources of the central Great Plains, by N. H. Darton. 1904. 

433 pp., 72 pis. (Out of stock.) 
WS 111. Preliminary report on underground waters of Washington, by Henry Landes. 1904. 85 pp., 

lpl. 
WS 112. Underflow tests in the drainage basin of Los Angeles River, by Homer Hamlin. 1904. 

55 pp., 7 pis. 
WS 114. Underground waters of eastern United States; M. L. Puller, geologist in charge. 1904. 

285 pp., 18 pis. 
WS 118. Geology and water resources of east-central Washington, by P. C. Calkins. 1905. 96 pp., 

4 pis. 

B 252. Preliminary report on the geology and water resources of central Oregon, by I. C. Russell. 

1905. 138 pp., 24 pis. 
WS 120. Bibliographic review and index of papers relating to underground waters, published by the 

United States Geological Survey, 1879-1904, by M. L. Puller. 1905. 128 pp. 
WS 122. Relation of the law to underground waters, by D. W. Johnson. 1905. 55 pp. 
WS 123. Geology and underground water conditions of the Jornada del Muerto, New Mexico, by C. R. 

Keyes. 1905. 42 pp., 9 pis. 
WS 136. Underground waters of the Salt River Valley, by W. T. Lee. 1905. 194 pp., 24 pis. 
B 264. Record of deep-well drilling for 1904, by M. L. Fuller, E. F. Lines, and A. C. Veatch. 1905. 

106 pp. 
PP 44. Underground water resources of Long Island, New York, by A. C. Veatch and others. 1905. 

394 pp., 34 pis. 
WS 137. Development of underground waters in the eastern coastal plain region of southern California, 

by W. C. Mendenhall. 1905. 140 pp., 7 pis. 
WS 138. Development of underground waters in the central coastal plain region of southern California, 

by W. C. Mendenhall. 1905. 162 pp., 5 pis. 
WS 139. Development of underground waters in the western coastal plain region of southern California, 

by W. C. Mendenhall. 1905. 105 pp., 7 pis. 
WS 140. Field measurements of the rate of movement of underground waters, by C. S. Slichter. 1905 

122 pp., 15 pis. 
WS 141. Observations on the ground waters of Rio Grande Valley, by C. S. Slichter. 1905. 83 pp., 

5 pis. 

WS 142. Hydrology of San Bernardino Valley, California, by W. C. Mendenhall. 1905. 124 pp., 13 pis. 
WS 145. Contributions to the hydrology of eastern United States; M. L. Fuller, geologist in charge. 

"1905. 220 pp., 6 pis. 
WS 148. Geology and water resources of Oklahoma, by C. N. Gould. 1905. 178 pp., 22 pis. 
WS 149. Preliminary list of deep borings in the United States, second edition, with additions, by 

N. H. Darton. 1905. 175 pp. 
PP 46. Geology and underground water resources of northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas, by 

A. C. Veatch. 1906. 
WS 153. The underflow in Arkansas Valley in western Kansas, by C. S. Slichter. 1906. 90 pp. 



SERIES LIST. Ill 

\vs 154. The geology and water resources of the eastern portion of the Panhandle of Texas, by C. N. 

• Gould. 1906. 64 pp., 15 pis. 
\vs 155. Fluctuations of the water level In wells, with special reference to Long Island, New York, 
by A. C. Watch. 1906. 83 pp. 

The following papers also relate to this subject: Underground waters of Arkansas Valley in eastern 
Colorado, by G. K. Gilbert, in Seventeenth Annual, I't. II; I'reliminan report on artesian waters oi a 
portion of the Dakotas, by X. II. Darton, in Seventeenth Annual. Pt. II; Water resources of Illinois, 
by Frank l.everctt. in Seventeenth Annual. I't. II; Water resources of Indiana and Ohio, by Frank 
Leverett, to Eighteenth Annual, Pt. IV; New developments in well boring and irrigation in eastern 
south Dakota, by N. II. Darton, in Eighteenth Annual, I't. IV; Rock waters of Ohio, by Edward 
Orton, in Nineteenth Annual, I't. IV. Artesian-well prospects in the Atlantic coastal plain region, by 
X. II. Darton, Bulletin No. 138. 

Correspondence should be addressed to 

The Director, 

United States Geological Survey, 

Washington, D. C. 
June, 1906. 

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